


Fight the norm

by cisco_centric_4ever



Series: Harem stories [4]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Child Abuse, F/F, F/M, Harems, Incest, M/M, Master/Pet, Mpreg, Multi, Neglect, Rape/Non-con Elements, Seme Uzumaki Naruto
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-11
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-07-29 16:03:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 20
Words: 131,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16267607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cisco_centric_4ever/pseuds/cisco_centric_4ever
Summary: While Naruto was still in the academy, he gets raped by a couple of drunk Ninjas one night. It was their way of keeping him 'in his place'. However, all they ended up doing was fueling the firing raging inside him. On the day of the graduation, the Kyuubi gives Naruto a special gift since it was tired of having to always heal his vessel every time he got beat up. With Kyuubi's help, Naruto plans his revenge on the village and his escape...But then a wrench gets thrown into his plans before he can execute them and the Hokage finds out.How will Naruto move on from here?On Hiatus!





	1. The fate of the human sacrifice

**Author's Note:**

> This story is being edited. As soon as all chapters are finished, the dates will change from 2018 to 2019. Thank you for reading ^.^

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter edit, 4/15/2019

**October 10th**

 

Today was not a special day for a certain blond. 

 

October tenth. It was the day he hated the most.

 

While everyone partied and celebrated, he suffered. 

 

Naruto hated this day as much as he hated Konoha. He wished more than anything for the villagers to feel his pain. Seeing as how they brought him nothing but every other day, but none more than this day. 

 

The day that he was born...

 

 

* * *

_Morning_

 

It was very early in the morning, around 6 o'clock to be exact, the sun had yet to come up. There weren't many villagers out at this hour, except for a handful of merchants getting ready to open up their shops and start the day. Of course, the bars were still open to the incoming ninjas that were just getting home from their long missions away from the village. However, there were more people out today, mainly because it was the day of the Kyuubi festival. In Naruto's opinion, it was a stupid festival meant to be celebrated by demons and sadist, the ones that took the greatest pleasure in making someone like, who was born on this day, miserable.

 

And also when they tried to 'finish what _he_ started'.

 

As far as Naruto was concerned, all the villagers could all just jump off a bridge and die, maybe then he would finally get some peace. Yet, his wish did come true, none of his wishes had ever come true, and he didn't think that they ever would. The villagers would always find a way to stop him from getting what he wanted. Even if it was something as simple as just wanted a warm, safe place to sleep at night. He never got his wish. That's why, today, the day of his twelveth birthday, he will make his own wish come true. It was a simple one really, to ruin the Kyuubi festival for everyone that celebrated it. He figured that since he was going to be leaving the academy soon, he might as well test his own skills since none of the sensei's assigned to him wanted to do that themselves. Today, he was going to pull a prank to end all pranks. His target, the festival goes. This would no doubt be the biggest prank he's ever pulled, and it had to be perfect. He already had most of the supplies that he needed, he just needed to go out and set them all up, without getting caught, of course. Naruto got out of bed and started to head to the bathroom while mentally doing a checklist of all of his "borrowed" items.

  * Itching powder
  * Baking soda
  * Chilli pepper bomb
  * Poisoned gas bomb
  * Paint bombs
  * Spray paint
  * Cow pie
  * Multiple containers of mold
  * And some bones (anime and not)



 

 Along with a few other things he had acquired over the past few months. When he stepped into the bathroom, a chill went up to his spin while stomach ached. Of course, he knew what this meant, it was a warning that something bad would happen today. He knew, but this was normal. Something bad happened to him almost every single day, but what else is new? He continued with his morning, as usual, not realizing that today would be more different than his other birthdays.

* * *

 

 

 

Once out of the bathroom and dressed, Naruto started his day by sneaking out of his apartment, the day was never fully started unless he snuck out before he was ambushed. It happened every year, so much so, in fact, that he had it marked down to a science. First, around seven, at least two hours before the academy started, some of the villagers would get together to kidnap him while he slept. They always broke into his home when they thought he would still be fast asleep. Their window would always be between five and seven o'clock before any of the kids in the village had to get up for school. In that respect, he would always wake up at about four or five in the morning to escape, but with the Kyuubi festival, there wouldn't be very many villagers going t his apartment so early because of the preparations they needed to make. With that said, they always made sure to leave a big mess for him whenever he got back home.

 

Childish.

 

Anyways, who cared about that now? He would deal with it later, he has everything he needed for his pranks. A light breeze was going, which will help with some parts of his prank when the time came. The sun also wasn't very hot today, which was also good. Now, it was time to begin.

 

Starting off, Naruto went to the Hokage mountain first and laid his items out in front of him. He picked up a bag of stink bombs, paint bombs, and his own invention of paper papers. He hid the rest of his stuff in the mountain until he was ready for them and set off into the village under the cover of darkness. He knew he needed to work fast in order to make it to school before his classmates. That would give off the cover that he had been waiting there for them, thus covering his ass for the morning. More or less. He set the bombs down on varying parts of the path that he knew the parade would go through. At the end of the festival each year, the villagers would have a parade to mark the end before setting off the fireworks. The parade always made its way through the center of the village where more people would see it, once there, the fireworks would go off, and luckily for Naruto, he knew the exact location of the fireworks. It was starting to get bright out by the time he made it to the center of the village, another stroke of luck was when he found that no one was around the fireworks display when he got there. He knew that these strokes of good luck won't last, so he worked faster in making his plan come true. When he finished, he dashed back to the mountain to get the next set of items. He picked up the bag of spray paint, chili pepper gas, and containers of mold he had gathered and set off into the village again. Now he had to be more careful since more people were starting to walk the street, he ducked into very alleyway and back street he knew, making it through half the village before his supply ran out, then it was back to the mountain for the last round of items. He was running out of time to sneak out, he knew he wouldn't be able to get through everything he brought in one morning, but it was a nice try. He would defiantly pick this up in the afternoon when the festival was in full swing and just about everyone was gunning for him.

 

Yeah, that should be fun.

 

On his way back to the mountain, he stumbled upon the back entrance of a lab and saw something that caught his eye. It looked like some empty bottles of bluish-greenish, purple liquid. He knew better than to pick it up, but then again, what harm could it do to him that he couldn't live through? He's been burned, chocked, cut, and various other things all his life, all of it hurt like hell, so what's a little bottle going to do? He went over to the bottle, picked it up, and inspected it, he had no idea what it did, or why it was left there for just about anyone to find, however, Naruto did know one thing. If a villager threw it away, it was his. That's the rule he's always gone by, it seemed to work out well enough so why not? He pocked the small bottle and went on his way, just in time to paint the faces of the mountain as the last act of his morning before heading off to school. He got to his destination in no time at all and double checked that the rest of his stuff was safely hidden away before he started painting. He finished with the Yondime getting the worst of his artwork, by now, the sun was up, illuminating the village and people were already heading off to school and work. No one had bothered to look up at his work as of yet, the fools, so got down from his perch and disappeared before they got a chance. He started making his way to the academy building with an hour to spare, he was so pleased with his earlier work that he failed to notice the lumbering ANBU drunkenly walk up behind him.

 

"Well, it's about time I head off," Naruto said to himself happily, that is until he felt the large hand clamp down on his right shoulder. He jumped and turned around to see, not one ANBU, but a group of them.

 

And they were wasted.

 

So wasted that they didn't even bother making it look like they weren't, one of who was swaying a bit as he stood still. The ANBU he bumped into looked down at him, "well, well, well, lookie what we got here? A demon trying to sneak around town so early in the morning?" The drunk ninjas slurred.

 

Naruto cursed in his head, _"shit, they're ANBU. Shit!"_ Naruto cursed his luck to run into the most elite ninjas in the village under the Hokage, he needed to find a way to get away from them fast. But he knew that it wouldn't take long before they caught up, they may have been drunk, but they were still fair during a chase, he would need the luck of all the gods in the world to make it way from them. _"Fuck, what do I do now?"_  He questioned himself as he backed up, unfortunately, he the ANBU that spoke wasn't about to let him get any further from him and grabbed his arm with a vice-like grip.

 

The ANBU guys chuckled when they noticed this. "Oi, Dog, what ya say we have a little fun with this guy before we have to check into HQ?" 

 

The ninja with the dog mask tilted his head a bit before giving his friend a nod. "But not here, there'll be people coming around soon," he stated with a bit of a slur himself.

 

As the ANBU talked, Naruto tried to get away still, however, the ANBU that held him wasn't letting go any time soon. "Where do you think you're going, demon?" This ANBU had the maks of a bird, while the first guy had the mask of a cat. Bird grip on Naruto tighten some more until it felt like the circulating in Naruto's arm was being cut off, Bird chuckled when he saw the pained look in the blond's blue eyes. He licked his lips behind his mask, he couldn't wait to have some fun with him, with his excitement growing, he tightened his grip a little more so Naruto wouldn't even think of escape again. Naruto, seeing the position he was in, tried to scream for help, but Bird clamped a hand over his mouth before he even opens his mouth. "Are you trying to wake up the whole village? That's not very nice of you, demon." Naruto grunted as the hand was also covering his nose slightly.

 

 _"Whoever this fuckwit is, he's going to be a pain to deal with. I bet he's one of the guys that get off on this sort of thing,"_   Naruto thought to himself.

 

"Come on, let's get out of here before someone sees us," Dog said as he started running towards the forest. 

 

Naruto had no choice but to try futilely to escape from the ANBU's grip. He knew that even though he wasn't able to escape now, they were going to late him go eventually, but until then, he wanted to make them work for his body. He wasn't about to just give it up again without a fight. He was twelve today, that meant he was going to become official adults and adults don't just roll over to let people walk all over them. Or that's what he thought at least. But his struggles were still in vain as the man holding him had an iron grip on him all the way to their destination. For a couple of drunks, they were pretty nimble on their feet, they got to their destination without falling over once, he supposed that had to do with them being elite ninjas. By the time they stopped, they were far enough into the forest that he knew his screams wouldn't be heard. Cat put up a sound barrier around the area. "Alright, we should have about an hour or two before the barrier fades," Cat announced as he started to undo his chest plates. 

 

"That should be more than enough time," Bird said as he dropped Naruto to ground and started to undo his belt.

 

Naruto was still struggling to get away when Bird let him go. When he fell to the ground he quickly scrambled back to his feet and tried to get away, he didn't look back when he felt something hold onto him. He turned back to see what was holding him and saw Bird. "Hehehe, not so fast little fox, we haven't had our fun yet," the ANBU sadistically. Dog and Cat soon joined Bird in holding the blond down, once he was secure, Bird let go so he could also take off his clothes. Naruto didn't know much about barriers, actually, he didn't know anything about barriers. He was never allowed to stay in class long enough to learn anything useful thanks to these stupid senseis at the academy. He wasn't about to start screaming for help, who would help him in such a hateful village such as this? As Naruto to look away from the ANBU holding him down, he was still looking for a way to get away, he could run to the Hokage and tell him what had happened, he the old man seemed like the only one that might listen to him about something like this. But he would need to get away first, he tried again to break free until he heard some chuckling from the ANBU behind him. Cat used a kunai and started cutting away at his hideous orange jumpsuit, but Naruto didn't care about the jumpsuit. He hated it anyway. He was a little upset that it was the last thing in his whole wardrobe at the moment but he could always find something else in the trash to wear that was ten times better than this, so it wasn't such a bad thing after. Cat ripped and tore away the offending clothing away until he got to the body underneath. Naruto continued to struggle as he was stripped, not giving up no matter how tight they held him. When Cat was finished he tossed the remaining pieces to the side, they fell in a pile of useless fabric, leaving Naruto completely naked, he never had enough money to buy himself underwear. He was lucky enough to find that ugly jumpsuit as he had outgrown everything else he had, it wasn't the best but whatever.

 

"Let the fun begin..." 

 

Naruto tried to kick his legs out, but Dog caught both of them, getting between them so he was unable to try it again. Dog looked to Cat, "flip him over."

 

With that simple command, Naruto found himself being manhandled as they flipped and pinned him down by the two ANBU. He tried to move from this position, but they held him in place. Dog spread the blond's cheek and positioned himself at the small pink hole before slamming himself inside without warning or preparation, the blond screamed out in pain. Naruto did his best to not scream out anymore after that as he felt Dog pull out and ram his dick into him again like a train into a wall. The most they got out of him now was a grunt of discomfort. Dog didn't care to wait for Naruto to get used his movements before pulling out and slamming into the small body again.  His thrusting picked up in speed. While Dog was busy on his end, Cat was stroking himself, enjoying the sight of the team's captain fucking Naruto. Cat lifted Naruto's head from where it was being pressed into the dirt and forced his mouth open. Naruto tried to turn his head away, yet Cat's grip on him was just as firm as Birds. He shoved his thumb into Naruto's mouth to stop any bitting attempts from the boy, he used his other hand to push the blond's head down on his dick. When he hears the blond gagging, he lifted his head in order to bring it down again, so he was forcing Naruto's head into a bobbing motion. The length, in Naruto's opinion, was the biggest thing that was forced into his mouth, ever. With his history, experienced this sort of scenario enough times to tell the difference. That did not mean he wanted to experience it again, mind you. Yet, seeing as he had next to no choice in the matter, like everything else in his life, the only thing he could really do now to tried to relax his throat. Or at least try not to chock. This wasn't going to end soon, he knew that much. There were three of them and one of him, and from the look in Birds eyes as he jacked himself off at the sight, the worst was yet to come. He endured the uncomfortable, but familiar setting that he was forced into. He made a mental note to be more careful when doing pranks so early in the morning next time. He did his best to block out the pain that came from the damage Dog was doing to his ass and insides, he was going to be sore for quite some time after this. Especially his throat, but his ass was going to take the most time to heal after this was all over. Dog was merciless in his thrusting, the unstretched cavern that he had forced himself into had quickly lubricated itself with blood. After what felt like forever, Dog finally came, Naruto tried not to whimper as the saltiness of the semen seeped into the tears now in his ass. It hurt too much not to make a sound, but he was already used to it from past events that were all too similar. As Dog slid himself out of Naruto's now stretched hole, Cat quickly stepped up to take his place. Bird came over to have a turn at getting his dick sucked while Cat made his way behind Naruto, he was just as ruthless and uncaring as Dog was. When Cat started thrusting, he seemed even crueler, was when he would slap Naruto's ass, the vibrations hurt his already wounded ass more. He also noticed that Cat was slightly bigger than Dog. Naruto mentally groaned in pain when he felt Cat slap his ass again, this was going to be a long morning, he could feel it in his bones. Maybe he should have listened to his gut when it was telling him to stay home after all. Naruto was annoyed by the third time Cat slapped his ass. He hated it when they slapped his ass, it made him feel even dirtier than he already felt. His thoughts were distracted when he nearly choked as Bird released his deep within his throat, the sudden action left him coughing and gasping for air. He hated when they did that too. Naruto swore to himself that one day he was going to get them back for this. Thankfully, it wasn't long until Cat emptied himself inside of Naruto's body and slipped out as if he was now bored with his new toy. This only left Bird to hold him down. As Naruto tried to regain his breath from almost choking to death on semen, another bad feeling settled into his stomach.

 

"Well, I had fun. I suppose we should get back to reporting in now," Dog said as he started to redressing after wiping himself down with a cloth he got from his pouch.

 

"You guys can go on without me, I want to try out this things ass." Bird said, sounding about as evil as a demon himself.

 

Dog shrugged his shoulders, "we might as well wait. It's not like the Hokage is expecting us until later."

 

"Fine by me, let me show you how a real man does things!" Bird boosted. Naruto resisted the urge to say something that would cause him more pain and discomfort. more than what he was already in. With one hand, Bird picked up Naruto by the neck while his other hand held onto the blond's already bruising hips before he slammed the boy down onto his still hard dick. He positioned his hand around Naruto's throat firmly. "Start bouncing little demon," he commanded as he tightened his grip around the boy's throat again, it was almost to the point that he couldn't breathe. Although he was starting to get really tired and could just barely feel his own legs at this point, Naruto to do as Bird said as he also tried to get Bird to loosen his grip around his throat. He was starting to lose more air than he could take in, but again, Bird's grip was unnervingly strong. He tried to force his numbed legs to start moving his body up and down on top of the man. By the time he felt the familiar feeling of warm semen entering his body and mixing with the other two, he was no longer able to take in any more air. While Bird was finally finished emptying himself into the blond, he tossed Naruto to the side like a rag doll so he could start getting dressed. "Aw man, that felt way better than the usual bitches in the redlight district! I have half a mind to take this little slut home with him and lock him up or something," Bird laughed as he wiped himself off and got dressed.

 

"Hn, I can't argue with you there, man, I was thinking the same thing," Cat laughed, Bird chuckled, thinking of ways he could make that happen when their captain spoke.

 

"All done boys?" Dog asked in a lazy drool as he started to put away an orange book that he took out to pass the time.

 

"Yeah, although, I wouldn't mind coming back for another round," Bird said, glancing back at Naruto's unmoving figure.

 

"Gees, look at the time. He'll need to turn in our reports soon," Cat said, almost completely sober now.

 

Dog looked up to the sky to see that the sun was already way above the mountain tops. "We better hurry then," he said as Cat undid the barrier. All three ANBU took off from the area without even looking back to check on the blond.

 

Meanwhile, Naruto was finally able to breathe again, but by the time Bird threw him to the side, he had blacked out, his body was wasn't even moving when Bird came in him. But, he was not dead, a certain fox would not allow his container to die so easily just because one pedophile couldn't see the signs of strangulation in a child. Once the three ANBU had left the area, Naruto continued to lay there, oblivious to the world. In his mind, he was angry,  _"One day...this village will burn, and I will taste its ashes up close. I want to look into each of their eyes as they burn in the fire of their own hate and I will be the one with the last laugh."_ He thought to himself subconsciously while also trying to force himself to wake up, he tried to will his body to move, however, because of all the stress and damage that was caused to him recently, that was not an option. Not to mention that it would take quite a bit of chakra to repair the damage... He was already drained of his energy. He could do nothing more than to lay in the dirt that was already started to mix with his blood and semen that leak out from his.

 

**Mindscape**

 

Kyuubi looked over the dirty, naked body of his vessel as it appeared in front of his cage. The fox snarled at the sight, it was disgusting.  **"This weakling! To think that I have to live within this... _thing_ for the rest of its natural life is appalling!" ** The fox frown got deeper as he sent his chakra through the seal, knowing that, right now, he could only heal the poor boy. Then a thought came to him and he smirked,  **"now there's an idea."**  He chuckled, **"if this is how I have to spend my time, then I might as well make good use of it. Things are about to get entertaining..."** He frowned again,  **"but I have to find a way to communicate with this whelp before I can act on my plans..."** As Kyuubi sent his chakra to heal the boy he felt his chakra mixing with the child's bloody bum. He could feel the semen still inside of his container, just then, another idea came to him. He doubted the boy would like it very much, however, it could prove to be fruitful for them both in the future. He didn't want to use his chakra to get the boy pregnant with the semen of one of those men, but if they really wanted revenge, then it had to be done. Now, he just had to find a way to get the brat on board with this plan,  **" ha, that's not going to be the hard part."** The Kyuubi sighed as he continued his work.

 

 

 

 

 

**To be continued...**


	2. Mate/Mates

_**Previously** _

 

_**October 10th** _

_Today was a special day for a certain blond. After waking up with a bad feeling like he does almost every other day before it. However, today was worse because he had a feeling that something really, really bad was going to happen. This could only mean that it was his birthday, so, with that thought in mind, and the fact that this would have to be his last year in the stupid academy, he decided to pull a prank of the village, but this prank would be unlike any other he had pulled before it. Naruto had gone out of his way to make the perfect prank to end all pranks. Paint bombs and explosive tags were involved, while the faces of the Hokage mountain were painted in comical fashion. Yet, Naruto did not stop there as he had created an invention that consisted of paint, explosive tags, bleach, some suspicious looking poison he found behind the research and development building. Not to mention a possibly lethal substance he found a biohazard bin near the side of the build. Since Naruto didn't know that what he had mixed together contained both poison and biohazardous agent, Naruto had carefully placed all of the said ingredients in a paint can and mixed it into the fireworks display when no one was looking. After that, he was about to make his way home when he bumped into a group of three ANBU, one of which he may or may not be seeing again in the future. The ANBU trio was not in their right mind as they had been drinking before bumping into the blond village pariah, and vis verse, then one suggested that the trio have some fun with the blond before reporting into ANBU headquarters. Needless to say, Naruto did not enjoy their idea of "fun" one bit._

 

 

 

 _Naruto cursed in his head_ , _"shit, they're ANBU."_

 

 

_Naruto was still struggling to get away..._

 

_screaming for help..._

 

_"All done boys?" Dog asked in a lazy drool..._

 

_The ANBU then took off from the area, taking down the sound barrier that was put up and leaving behind the unconscious twelve-year-old boy in a small puddle of blood and semen._

 

_**Naruto's Mindscape** _

_**"...To think that I have to live within...** _ _**Now there's an idea** _ _**...Things are about to get entertaining** _ _**...My plans...** _ _**But before that** _ _**...** **The hard part..."** And so the Kyuubi set out to complete his plans while healing the boy he was forced to keep alive to sustain his own existence._

__

* * *

 

 

**Now...**

 

 

A couple days later, Naruto finally able to return to the academy after the event. This was one birthday that he would never, ever going to forget. 

 

Surprisingly, after he fell asleep in his unconscious state, something happened. When he finally woke up, he noticed the change, it wasn't right away, but he could feel the change that had occurred in his body. He had forced his way over to a pond or river to get some water because he was severely dehydrated after not being conscious for about two days straight. When he looked into the shifty surface of the river he had come across, he saw it. His eyes. They weren't his normal eyes anymore, they were still his, but...the color was completely off somehow. He couldn't put a finger on it right away, but the longer he looked into the river, the more he realized the details of the changes. First off, his eye color was no longer the bright, ocean/sky color they once were, no, they were a color that he's never once seen in anyone's eyes before. And the patterns. It was almost like his eyes were somehow turned into a rippling pond of buleish-lavender. It was very odd, to say the least. Yet, it intrigued the young blond further. He was wondering if the patterns in his eyes were somehow related to the Sharingan in any way, if so, then maybe he would be able to use them to show up Sasuke and his stupid fangirls...The idea was there, but the execution was flawed because as soon as Naruto had tried to send chakra to his eyes, he found that there was something in him telling him that he was wrong. He was confused, it was like a tiny whisper that was from far away but felt so close. Thinking back, he always seems to hear such a faint whisper all of his life, he just figured that it was his gut or something and called it a day. However, this time seemed to be a bit different as the whisper almost sounded like it was yelling at him for reasons unknown. So, what did he do? He listened to it, of course, it's how he's survived up until now, besides, every time he heard that small whisper inside of him, something always seemed to work out in his favor...if only just barely. 

 

Naruto continued to send chakra to his eyes and thought about a few things like; why did he wake up with different eyes all of a sudden? How was he able to have these eyes and why? Most importantly, what could these eyes do? If they were anything like the Sharingan, then they would have to be powerful, right? What would he name them, if they didn't have a name already...As the blond continued to think, a fish swam by and caught his attention. Usually, a fish swimming by in the water wouldn't cause such attention to the boy, but, it was what he saw in the fish that made him pause. The fish itself wasn't anything special, although, there was something in the fish, as well as every other living thing in the Elemental Nations that caused them to be unique to the Nations alone: Chakra. Chakra was in everything and everyone. Humans, animals, plans...there was nothing in the elemental nations that existed without chakra, even if it couldn't be used outwardly, it was most certainly used internally. Up until now, Naruto had never seen what chakra looked like, if he had to guess, he would have said that it looked blue in color, so...If that thought was correct, then that means that right now, he was looking at the fish's chakra? 

 

 _"No, no there's no way, chakra's supposed to be inside the body. No one can see it unless they have some kind of special training...like the evil doctors in that death trap called a hospital."_ Naruto thought to himself, and as he thought that, he felt the small, distant whisper he heard before telling him something. He wished he could make out what the voice was saying, he wishes he could actually hear the voice instead of just feeling it in the back of his head or in his gut like it had since he was young. Naruto continued to look at the fish as the whispered voice continued to try to tell him something, maybe it was trying to explain what he was seeing? Either way, from what he was feeling from the voice, it seemed that he was, in fact, looking that the fish's chakra system. This confused the boy greatly, "but how? How am I able to do that?" He whispered to himself out loud. Thus, from that day forth, Naruto had dedicated his time into figuring out what was going on with his eyes. He wanted to gather information on different eye abilities that gives the user power when chakra is added, the thing that was also supposedly called a "dojutsu" or something. Naruto had overheard one of the kids in another class call them that, and now the voice in the back of his head was confirming that that was what it was called. Naruto leaned back in his sitting position near the river, all this new information he was coming up with, being told, or whatever was giving him a headache. He didn't know if the voice was the one putting these thoughts into his head or if it was something he had read before and forgot until now, but it was a pain. He didn't understand a lick of it and trying to do so when he didn't have the base knowledge was frustrating him, making his head hurt even more. It almost felt like there was some sort of wall in his mind between him and something else that had lost of power, information, and information about power that could possibly benefit him greatly. Alas, whatever that what is, metaphorical or not, it felt like that was the main cause of his headache. 

 

*Grrraawl*

 

On top of that, he was staving!

 

"Well, there's no way that I can get anything done on an empty stomach." Naruto sighed, he looked at a school of fish that was swimming by, or maybe he was imagining a school of fish? He was really hungry, he hadn't eaten anything solid in about two days and the few days before the 'event' hadn't had much food in it either. Naruto looked into the river again, he blinked his eyes, confusion overtaking him again. The fish had stopped moving forward in the river, actually, they were still moving, although, they weren't moving forward, nor where they moving backward. No, instead, it looked like they were trying to move forward, but something unseen was blocking their way. Still confused, Naruto reached into the water and felt in front of the fish, to his surprise, he did feel something there, he just couldn't see what it was. Unbeknownst to the blond, it was actually because of him that the fish couldn't move forward, but he had no idea about that.

 

At least, not yet.

 

"Hm, strange," Naruto said as he pulled his hand out of the water. He sighed again, he was starting to get tired again, then he remembered that he was sending chakra to his changed eyes. "Hmm, well, I won't look a gift horse in the mouth, even though I feel bad for your guys, I haven't eaten anything in a long time. Uh...you," Naruto reached into the water again, grabbing hold of the biggest fish among the newly gathered group of fish. It was slippery and there were a few moments when it had flipped out of his grasp as soon as he tried to bring it out of the water, though, in the end, he still managed to pull the fish free of its home. His stomach growled at him again, Naruto smiled at the fish brightly, "don't worry, your sacrifice will not go to waste, Mr. Fish! Hehe," he chuckled a little, he looked back to the river, seeing that all the gathered fish were now breaking free of their invisible containment. Naruto decided not to think about it, for the time being, he shrugged his shoulders as he got himself to his feet to start a fire. The fish had long since stopped its struggle for freedom so the blond was able to keep it in his grasp until he found a place to cook it.

 

Later, after he finished eating, Naruto's mind wandered back to his eyes. The curiosity was overwhelming him, so he found the river again to see if his eyes still looked the same as before or if they had gone back to their original state. Looking back into the water's surface, Naruto saw that his eyes still a bluish-lavender color with ripples going outwards. He stared at his eyes for a long while until something inside of him told him to hid them. Of course, this was a very logical idea, if the villagers saw him with these eyes, he shuttered to think of what would happen to him then. Doing as he was told, he created hand signs for the transformation jutsu, he focused it on his eyes only so that they looked like his usual pair. When he looked back into the water, he found that his objective was a success. "Neat, now, what should I do?" The twelve-year-old jinchuriki wondered to himself.

 

* * *

 

**The next day**

_Academy_

 

As Naruto makes his way to his usual seat in the back, he looks around the room. The kids were busy talking to each other, no one seemed to be paying attention to him so far. This was good, he hoped that it would continue on like that forever, but, knowing his luck, it was unlikely. No one has noticed his wardrobe change yet either, and he was thankful. Even though it felt like he took a week off to recover and get his bearings, not just from the trauma of the rap, but also to fulfill the curiosity of his changed eyes. It seemed almost by some divine will that he had gotten these eyes, he felt like he now had a new surge of energy that he's never felt before. And it was all in his new eyes. Although, as soon as Naruto stepped foot into the academy again, he felt drained, emotionally and mentally. If he were to describe the feeling, it was almost as if someone had slashed ice cold water on him while he was sleeping comfortably in his bed while in a deep sleep. The sight of the academy alone was felt like he was stepping foot back into his own personal hell once more. He hated this feeling with a passion. He was just so tired of trying to keep up his idiot act every single time he stepped foot out into the public eye. He knew that he was twice as smart as the kids in his class, that included Shikamaru, Sasuke, and Shino, yet, the same wall that seemed to separate him from some kind of hidden knowledge and power also felt like it was keeping him away from his true potential. The only when he knew that he wasn't an idiot was he pulled pranks, to him, he left like they were all quite simple to come up with. He did more than half of his pranks in a NEON ORANGE jumpsuit for kami's sake, but was he ever caught in the act? No! So he had to have some intelligence hidden somewhere in his brain, right? Despite what the villagers said, he wasn't an idiot, if he was, then he would probably be doing that dumb whoopie cushion prank Kiba keeps trying to pull and always blaming it on him.

 

As if he would sink so low.

 

Nevertheless, Naruto had decided that today would be a good day for a change. He was much too tired to keep up his act, he would be graduating soon, hopefully, so he needed to get this idiot image out of his way as soon as possible, starting with dropping his mask. Little by little, he will show everyone wh he really was inside. Regardless of what some people thought, living your life as an oblivious, idiotic, color-blind fool was much harder to do when you heard  _everything_  people had to say about you. Even the ninjas seemed to whisper quite loudly around him, he would have to be completely deaf not to hear.

 

Anyway, since Naruto no longer is able to sport his hideous jumpsuit, he had to find something else from the only place he could truly afford. The trash.  today's outfit is a white t-shirt that was two sizes too big on him. The dirty material hung on him as if he were nothing more than bones, which might not have been too far from the actual truth. His pants were baggy black ninja pants he found mixed in with a pile of clothes some civilian woman was throwing out of her window. Actually, it was thanks to that civilian woman that he now had a new wardrobe to chose from, granted that all the clothes were still too big for him as they were adult sized. Yet, it was a gift from the heavens nonetheless. He has no idea why she was throwing clothes out of her window, but from the yelling, he was hearing from her apartment, the clothing must have belonged to someone she no longer likes. The fool didn't even notice when Naruto had stolen all the clothes that were being thrown out until they finally went outside. He found a pair of used shoes sitting next to a dumpster, they were also a coupled sizes too big, but within time, he was sure to grow into them, they were still good compared to the ones he had, which had holes in the soles of both sides.

 

He sighed again, taking note of how his classmates lives looked to be so perfect. Naruto's eyes settled Shikamaru,  _"that lazy Nara, he's got it made. He sleeps through class and no one bats an eye because his a clan kid. What I wouldn't give to have such security in my life, I wonder what I would have to do in order to one day be as important as that lazy ass..."_ He wondered as he continued to watch the sleeping Nara. Over the years, Naruto has classified his classmates in categories based on their skills and their future potential. For example, Shikamaru had the brains, so he classified him as 'The Lazy ass that might have some brains' since he sleeps in the class all the time, he can't be too sure of his intellect. Yet, there was something about the Nara that told him he could come up with some good plans in a pinch. But, it was only a guess. Shino was the 'Strong silent type' since he never talks unless needed. Chouji, obviously, was a heavy hitter, the frontline type that would take out the enemy and be the outer defense, but that was future potential talking, right now Chouji was just a softy. Kiba, no doubt will be a tracker ninja in the future with his dog, Akamaru.  _"Now, if only his dog didn't seem like the more sensible out of the two,"_   Naruto chuckled to himself slightly. Next up was Hinata, the supposed princess of the Hyuuga clan, she was shy and quiet, and she always talked with a stutter whenever she tried to talk to him. It annoyed him a bit, so he stopped trying to talk to her during their third year, but he would still watch her. Like all of his classmates, he watched and took note of everything, he was a very observant kid. If anyone in the village had bothered to pay attention long enough, they would have seen how much of an asset he really was to any village. But they never did. His eyes fell upon the Uchiha, looking at the boy from behind he couldn't see anything really special about him in his own opinion.  _"Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke...what can anyone ever see in that guy? He's arrogant, rude, and stuck up, so not my type...If I had it my way, I would beat some sense into his arrogant elitest ass. Maybe then he'll stop spouting about how he was better than everyone in the world."_

 

Surprisingly or not, there were a lot of civilians in his class. But Naruto didn't pay attention to any of them. They were like fangirls, they were worthless in a fight, always running away screaming as if they were on fire. The most annoying of the civilian/fangirl population happened to be two banshees named Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka. Or as he liked to call them, Slutty Bitch and Disgrace to her whole clan. Their official titles being Bitch and Whore, together they made up the head of the Uchiha Slut Organization, aka USO. Of course Naruto had other names for those two, but for now, these were the ones he associated their names with the most since the second week of class. In fact, Naruto had downright replaced their names with Bitch and Slut in his mind a long, long time ago. 

 

 **"Those seem like appropriate names for those two, I agree,"** came a seemingly random demonic voice in the back of his head. Naruto was just thinking about how willing Bitch and Slut might be to get with the Uchiha when his vision blurred and become dark all of a sudden before going back to normal just as quick. It was almost as if someone had turned off and on the lights.

 

"What the...?" Naruto whispered to himself as he looked around the room to see if anyone else was affected by this as well, yet, it didn't seem so.

 

Then he heard a voice again,  **"finally! It looks like I got through..."** it said happily.

 

 _"Huh? did I say that?"_ Naruto thought to himself.

 

**"No, but since I finally got through, let's talk."**

Naruto wasn't so sure why, but he was compelled to do what that voice said. Naruto shrugged his shoulders,  _"sure, what up, Mr. Voice, nice to meet ya,"_ he thought to the voice, wondering if it could really hear his thoughts or not. Logically speaking, if it was in his head, then that should be the case, but if not, the voice will have to wait until after whatever lesson he would be kicked out of for no reason before he could talk to it out loud.

 

**"Hm, you don't seem to be as shocked as I had initially anticipated you'll be. Odd, but whatever, and my name is not 'Mr. Voice', brat, the next you call me by such will be your last! In fact, you should be grateful to be talking to the one and only, Kyuubi no Yoki!"**

 

Naruto rose an eyebrow at the voice, even though he was sure it couldn't see it. He sighed and turned to look out the window of the class,  _" uh, weird flex, but okay. So are you going to be like Sasuke or something, because if so, we won't get along well."_ Naruto was sure that he felt the voice scowl at the name of the Uchiha, he didn't know how that was possible though.

 

 **"The Uchiha wished he had my power! Do not insult me, you whelp!"** Naruto rolled his eyes,  **"I saw that!"**

 

 _"How?"_  Thought Naruto as he looked around to see if anyone was looking at him. **  
**

 

The Kyuubi rolled his own eyes at his vessel,  **"I'm in your head, baka, I can see everything you're doing through your eyes."**

 

Naruto thought about that for a moment, it was sort of making sense.  _"Okay, so what's up? A_ _re you going to tell me who you really are? I'm pretty sure that my sensei will be coming into the room pretty soon."_  Just as he thought that Iruka Umino and his assistant, Mizuki (whatever his last name is) came into the room. But Naruto didn't notice.

 

The voice chuckled,  **"since you seem to be in a rush, and I don't want to spend all day explaining, we'll get to the point.**   **I am the Kyuubi no Yoki, the Nine-tailed Demon Fox Spirit that attacked your village the day you were born. I am also the King of the demon word, Lord of the foxes, and a master of battle. And yes, this is all fact, tremble before me human!"**

 

Naruto's face mentally morphed into one of awe and amazement while outwardly, he looked like he was spacing out, which he kind of was. A skill he had picked up some time ago. " S _o...King of the Demon world, why are you talking to me in my head? I this some form of possession or something?"_  He was guessing that it had to have been because of a great battle from long ago that trapped him there. A battle that was so epic, it destroyed mounts and lands far and wide. If this really was the Kyuubi, then that explained so much, about the villager's treatment towards him and so on, but he had always been told by the Sandime that the fox had supposedly 'died' the night he was born. If this really, truly was the Kyuubi, then there were major holes in the history of the village. Not only that, Naruto was starting to wonder if the Sandime knew that the Kyuubi was alive inside of him. If he did, did anyone else know? Probably the villagers knew, hence why they treated him like unwanted trash.

 

The Kyuubi raised a brow at the kid's thoughts.  **"Although I will agree that I do have the power to possess some numbers of humans while fighting, that, sadly, is not how I ended up in you. By the way, your mind his a sewer, an actual a sewer on a literal term...Perhaps while I am training you, you can do something about that, hm?"** The Kyuubi almost sounded hopeful.

 

Naruto's brows knitted together,  _"what do you mean? My mind is a dump?"_ He asked curiously,  _"if that's the case, t_ _hen why are you here?"_

 

 **"Well, this is going better than I thought."** The Kyuubi said as he looked upon the mental manifestation of the blond that served as their speaking link, even though Naruto was yet unable to see the fox in his mind, the like took his form.  **"Very well, I will tell, after I explain, I have a deal for you. But you will need to work hard,"** He added knowing that the little human didn't like handouts, rather, he would like to work for what he got. Feeling like he deserved it more. **"The night that you were born, I had already been sealed within your mother, a one Kushina Uzumaki of the former Uzumaki clan of Whirlpool in the Land of Eddies. The person that sealed me was your great aunt, Mito Uzumaki, my first container. However, when your mother got pregnant and decided to keep you, instead of aborting you as many others had wished, her seal became weak. Although I could have escaped at any time during your birth, my escape from her wasn't of my own doing. No..."**  the Kyuubi growled a bit at the memory, **"no, it was because of a snake of a man wearing an orange mask. That bastard ripped me from Kushina's seal so forcefully that I was disoriented, in my confused state after being ripped from the seal, I was put under a jutsu. It forced me, the great Kyuubi, to attack everything I saw, making me believe that I was attacking my worst enemy. The one that took everything away from me! By the time I came to, I was already being resealed by your father, the one known as the Yellow flash, the Yondime Hokage, Minato Namikaze, before his soul was eaten by the shinigami himself. After that day, I was forced to use my chakra to heal your pathetic ass, if I wanted to continue my existence during this time while that bastard is still alive. Since you are my host, keeping you alive will allow me to buy time to think up a plan. My initial plan was to take over your pathetic body and go after that bastard no matter what it too. However, as the seal I am contained in was intermediated by the death god himself, I am unable to do such a thing, so my new plan has come down to training your weak human self. Even though my memory of that night is foggy at best, I know I remember those details well enough."**

 

As Naruto listened to the story, he kept a straight face while Iruka carried on his day as usual. He had called out names already and since he didn't really bother to look up most of the time. That is until he got to Naruto's name, and since Naruto was conversing with the Kyuubi at the moment, he wasn't responding to Iruka's call, which was infuriating the chunin to no end. Still, it didn't bother Naruto very much because he infuriated people just by taking in the same air as they did. While Iruka called out Naruto's name for the second time, Naruto was deep in his own thoughts about the Kyuubi's explanation, it was a lot to take in,  _"My mother is Krishna Uzumaki, I think I've heard that name before somewhere...Oh, yeah, she was the one that a lot o the Konochi's look up to. They called her the Hot Chilly Pepper or something. And I had an Aunt! That's pretty cool, I wonder how great she must have been, I wonder if she's still around. Not only that, my father was a great Hokage!... Well, maybe not so great, he did saddle me with the fox, that fact must not have gone over well with the villagers when they heard about it." So wait, Kyuubi, you're all great and powerful, why can't you escape the seal while I was, I don't know, a baby or getting beaten within an inch of my life?"_

 

Kyuubi chuckled,  **"I did think about that, but after inspecting the seal that bastard put on you, I can't actually do that. Well, not unless I was planning on killing you and myself in the possess."**

 

 _"What? Are you saying there is actually a way to kill the great Kyuubi no Yoki?"_  Naruto wondered as he subconsciously felt Iruka's presence standing behind his seat about to yell at him.

 

 **"Hmm, yes and no. I am a Yoki made up of pure chakra and negative emotions, wherever hate and negative breaths, I can reform back to my former glory. However, if you were killed, you would die and my Yoki presence will dissipate into the air for about five to ten years before I reform. You would still be dead unless I decide that I want to stay in this era a little longer, I have to heal you enough that you stay alive until you can get medical help. Or until you are no longer near death's door, both task can be quite tiring since you are beaten as often as you are."** Kyuubi got comfortable in front of the bars and looked at the blond form closely,  **"I see you're not blaming me for what happened to you."**

 

Naruto shrugged his shoulder,  _"what can I say? It's not you're the one that rapes and beat me ev-"_

 

"NARUTO UZUMAKI, EITHER PAY ATTENTION WHEN I'M CALLING ROLL, OR LEAVE THE CLASS IMIDETLY!!" Iruka shouted right into Naruto's ear, the sudden volume of the chunin's voice. Plus the closeness of it was enough to draw out the said blond out of his conversation with the fox. Naruto looked around at class, he could see all the smug looks on all of their faces, except Shikamaru, he looked like he had just woken up and was asking Chouji what the hell was going on. He turned around to see Iruka standing behind him, glaring at him with all the hate he could contain in his body, the same hated look that the villagers would give him day in and day out. Naruto sighed, seeing no point in trying to reason with him, as was previously said, Naruto was no longer going to play up his usual mask as before. He got up from his seat and started heading for the door, which sort of threw everyone off a little. Not only did Naruto not try to claim some excuse, but it was also then that everyone had noticed his new clothes. It was clear to them that they were not his, there were a few comments that called out about the blond's style, but all comments were met with silence as the boy headed for the classroom door without looking at a single soul

 

It was then that Kiba, who was seated in the desk closet to the door, decided to 'accidentally' stick his foot out. An old prank that Naruto might have fallen for id he was still wearing his mask, but since he wasn't...Naruto decided that he would 'accidentally' step on the boy's ankle with all of his weight. "OOOWW!!" Kiba shouted as the blond jinchuriki continued on his way out of the room. Some students gasped, this was definitely not like the blond idiot they knew and they didn't like it, they would be sure to tell their parents about this after school. Kiba held his ankle, even though Naruto wasn't in the right position to do any real damage, the action still hurt the Inuzuka enough to leave a mark. Iruka quickly came over to the dog boy and looked at his ankle.

 

"Naruto! Apologies to Kiba right now!" Iruka shouted at the blond just as he had his hand on the door.

 

Kyuubi watched from his cell, this change in behavior interested him. Naruto looked back to the angry chunin with the smug looking Inuzuka heir, he raised a brow at them. "Why don't you go fuck off, I ain't saying sorry because he shouldn't have had his foot out in the first place. In fact, why don't you make him say sorry for all the times he's 'accidentally' tripped me on my way out of class." He turned around fully to face the Chunin with folded arms, he glared at the man, staring in straight in the eyes as he waited for the expected answer.

 

"I should he apologies? It was only an accident, now you apologize to him." Iruka stated, saying exactly what Naruto expected he would say, "you had no right in doing what you did, you could have really hurt Kiba. In fact, you could have ended his career before it even started," Iruka stated, making the whole class look at Naruto in shock. Iruka stood at his full height, thinking that the blond would go back to how he usually was and apologies or make a big fuss before mumbling an apologie under his breath. But he was mistaken.

 

"Hmph, fuck you, Iruka," Naruto stated, shocking everyone now. Even the said chunin at his language, "why don't you go fuck your ANBU boyfriend in the bushes behind the school again, I'm sure he's waiting for you," he stated as he turned back to the door, opened it, and stepped into the hall. "Fucking slut," he mutters just loud enough for Iruka and those closest to the door to hear before slamming it shut. Naruto continued on his way down the hall, not caring about hurt feelings or peoples reactions, he already vowed to himself that he was going to be himself now, this his words were his inner thoughts and he was sure to let everyone know what he was thinking from now on.

 

Iruka, for his part, was about as read as a tomato. In his mind, he was thinking that there was no way that the so-called 'demon brat' could have heard, let alone seen, him and dog doing it in the bushes two weeks ago. They had been careful in putting up a sound barrier and making sure that none of the kids or other staff members would see them, so there was no way that the uneducated, unskilled demon boy could, right? Not only was Iruka embarrassed by the possibility of Naruto seeing him and his secret lover do it behind the school, but now everyone in the class heard about it. That means a whole class of twelve years heard what Naruto said. His class. His students...if their parents found about what was said just now...Iruka slowly turned to face the class, that's when the questions started. The main start of the questioning was none other Sakura Haruno, the overachiever that wanted to learn everything so she could pass the exams to become a ninja like a crush. And had no other motivation beyond that.

 

"Iruka sensei, what does 'Fuck' mean?" Sakura asked curiously since the academy's curriculum no longer allowed for sex education because of the civilian council.

 

Iruka felt the color leave his face. He knew that Sakura's mom was on the civilian council when she hears about this, his goose will be overcooked with all the trouble he'll be in..

 

* * *

 

**With the destroyer of chunin jobs: Naruto**

 

The Kyuubi sat in his cage for a long time as the blond boy walked about the school's halls until he reached the back door and left the building. Figuring that this was more than enough time, he spoke:  **"as I was saying earlier, beats is one thing, human, but rape is another. To put the two together at the same level of cruelty for a kit is despicable in and of itself."**

  

Naruto paused in his steps as he thought,  _"what are you-"_ But was interrupted.

 

 **"Listen well, little brat, for years I have watched through your eyes, and for years I was disgusted. If anything were to separate my kind from yours, it's this. The things that I saw they were willing to do to a kit as yourself..."**  The fox took in a deep breath before letting it out long and slow, **"I may have been given the honor of ruling over demons. Yet I have never met a demon, Yoki, ghoul, or any other creature of the night and underworld stoop to such levels harm a kit. We have more honor than that."** Kyuubi calmed himself down and took in a deep breath,  **"but now we are wasting time, I will explain the deal.** **If you accept, there is no going back. I will name you as my heir to the underworld and I will then proceed to train you into the dirt and then so until I am satisfied with the results. During your training, you will require mates to release stress."**

 

 _"Mates? What are mates?"_  Naruto pouted a little, he thought back on if he had heard this word used before, he folded his arms in front of him.  _"I don't know if you noticed, but no one in this village likes me in the slightest and I don't really like anyone in this village either."_

 

The Kyuubi smirked,  **"so you say, but I'm sure in time you will learn that these petty human feelings will only get in the way. No, you do not need to like anyone in any humanly emotional way. Demons and Yoki alike have been able to continue their existence by obtaining sexual partners that can carry our young, no feelings required. However, if you wish to have some sentiment about such things, then you should look for those you feel you can easily manipulate or negotiate with, either way, will work. As long as they agree to have sex with you and carry your young, nothing else matters. Even if they do not wish to carry your seed, they will have no choice afterward."**

 

Naruto shrugged his shoulders before letting his arms fall to the side,  _"okay, that sounds simple enough, but as I said, I don't care for anyone in this village. How can I find someone that I would want to carry...'my seed'?"_  The blond asked,

 

 **"I thought that would have been simple but you're only human."** Kyuubi said with a sigh, and Naruto rolled his eyes,  **"to put it simply if you so** **wished, you could choose a mate that has a bloodline. During sex, if you chose to, you can add their bloodline to** **your own. Not to mention the boost in power your kit will get through this deal, think about it, with my guidance, you will have the power that you always wanted. Plus, you won't be limited to pick from those god awful banshee fangirls in your class. Age also is not a factor, so feel free to go wild."**

 

Naruto thought about that for a few seconds. Getting power is what he's always wanted, but he will have to train to make it his own. He didn't like being given anything because his past has told him enough that anything free id deadly. He will have to work hard, and chose well, especially if he was going to be given the family that he's always dreamed of when he was small. He also has to find someone suitable to do this 'mate'. Yet, his hate for the villagers increases almost every day. Everyone in the village hated him, and he them...except for the Ichiraku ramen stand guys. They were cool. He hadn't stopped by them in a while because people would spread the word about him being there and they would lose business, so he had to pick and chose random times to see them. They would sometimes give him a free bowl of ramen whenever he stopped by, he could eat a whole lot more, but he couldn't and wouldn't be so selfish. Actually, that was one of the reasons why he wanted to become a ninja in the first place so that he could have a job with real money so he could repay their kindness towards him. Hmm...after much thought, Naruto accepted the deal,  _"alright, sounds like a plan. When do we get started?"_

 

The Kyuubi grinned,  **"ah, perfect, I was hoping you would say yes! Or else all the changes that I've already done would have been in vain,"**  the fox laughed.

 

"You mean you set this all up before you even asked me?!" Naruto said incredulously, feeling slightly betrayed, but still very curious.

 

 **"Relax, human, it was inevitable that you would say yes. All of you humans are the same...well, mostly. You could be a little different if given the chance."** The fox stated thoughtfully,  **"anyhow, it's too late to turn back now. It's training time! Head into the forest so we may start!"**

 

Naruto's shoulders slumped,  _ **"** this is going to be a long day."_

 

* * *

**Two months later**

 

When Naruto had returned from his two month trip in the forest, nothing had changed. Everyone went about their day as if he had never been gone, it hardly seemed like anyone really noticed, not like they would care if even if they did. The day that Naruto had been kicked out of class, Kyuubi took the time to teach the boy everything that he should know in order to be a ninja, he also passed down some of his own knowledge. It had only been about two months, it wasn't enough time to teach the boy all he knew. However, Kyuubi had a feeling that if they didn't return back to that wretched academy soon, Naruto might miss his chance of becoming a ninja. Becoming a ninja was the first step of the plan they had come up with during the past months. While they were away, Kyuubi also informed him of the Uzumaki clan's history and the small bits of Namikaze clan history that he knew of, the information was taken in stride. Seeing as how both clans seemed to have been defeated during the war times, there was still a very small possibility that some Uzumaki members, as well as some Namikaze members, might have survived on a whim. Walking into class, he noticed that everyone was looking at him, he frowned, "what?" He asked in annoyance.

 

Iruka sighed, disappointed at the fact that the blond had returned to school today of all days. He had held a bit of hope that the blond would stay away long enough for the class to graduate and leave him back in the dust. Twelve was the cut off year for academy students to become ninjas after all, after that, if you didn't pass, you would remain as a civilian."Naruto, get to your seat so I can start," he said irritatedly. Naruto rolled his eyes at the chunin as he continued up to his seat and looked out the window. Not even caring about whatever lesson Iruka was going to give as Kyuubi already had the chance to cover all the basics of ninjutsu, genjutsu, and some taijutsu in the first month. The second was for refining his skills. Meanwhile, Iruka didn't bother to acknowledge the boy any further, "alright class, clear your desk for the first part of the exam." 

 

Naruto then realized that he nearly missed the exams, if he had not listened to Kyuubi about going back today, then he would have been stuck as a civilian forever! He smirked, today was the genin exams, this should be interesting.  _"Hm, looks like I won't have to wait long to put these new skills to the test,"_ he thought to himself.

 

 **"Oh, by the way, Naruto..."** Kyuubi's voice rang in his head.

 

_"Yeah, what?"_

 

 **"There's something I forgot to mention before,"**  it stated.

 

_"What's that?"_

 

**"As I told you before, don't show off, showing off gets you killed. You can use your new skills all you want, but never show all of your cards, that's how things go south. Understand, kit?"**

 

Naruto nodded his head once as he waited on his test paper,  _"okay, fair enough. Anything else."_

 

Naruto hears the fox chuckle softly,  **"I think today should be a good day to start picking your mate. Someone strong with good blood will suit you well. Manipulation might be what we're after, but chose wisely as every puppet has strings."** With that said, the fox laid down for a nape, he had been up all night lecturing Naruto about a few things to make sure he was ready for the test. He wondered how hard it might be, the way that Konoha seemed to boast about their strength made the fox extra precautions in making sure his vessel graduates this time around.

 

Naruto put his full focus on his test. He looked at the first question on the page, reading it to himself before moving onto the next one below that. Then the next one below that. And the next, and the next...until he was just sitting there giving the paper the most disapproving look ever. Naruto's main plan of attack was to do all the hard questions first so that they would be out of the way, Kyuubi was very strict when teaching him about the ninja way. Yet...every question he read, Kyuubi had covered in his lectures during the first week of training. Naruto could only call this test...trash? A waste of time? Maybe even both. Utter garbage in his eyes.  _"Simple questions for simple minds, I suppose,"_  he thought to himself as he put pencil to paper and started to write. Within ten minutes, Naruto had just about finished the test, it was the last question that got him thinking on a level he liked.  

 

_If the village was every invaded by an enemy force, what is the best course of action to take? How would you help keep the village safe? For extra credit, describe a plan you can give that would benefit the village as a whole and lessen the number of lives lost._

 

Naruto liked this question. It wasn't like the others, this one actual pertained to an actually useful tactics building, at the back of his mind, he wondered how Shikamaru might answer the question. Naruto took a few minutes to think before writing down a detailed answer. He didn't make it sound too well thought out, he gave vague descriptions as to not show off how much thought he put into the answer. Besides, who in this village would take it seriously when it was coming from him anyway?

 

When the test was over, everyone was led outside for the second part of the test. Taijutsu. Now that Naruto was thinking about it, he might have to be a little more careful of his actions in this part of the test. Making sure that he didn't give away his new found strengths too soon. He made his way to the ring on his turn, he looked up at Mizuki.  _"okay, I gotta be careful to not show too much."_ He dropped into a basic academy taijutsu stance and waited for Iruka to start the match.

 

"Alright, ready, begin!" Iruka said as he started his timer.

 

Naruto took in a deep breath as he saw Mizuki charge for him. All the times before him, Mizuki didn't do this, he always waited for his opponent to attack first. Naruto was positive this had to do with the demon stigma floating around the village. He blocked a hard punch from Mizuki. The goal of this test was to get a hit on the chunin or last longer than a minute. He was aiming for the former. "Bring it on, Mizuki-teme, I'm going to win this match," He stated loud enough so everyone could hear him, he didn't care what anyone else had to say about this, they were all underestimating him in their minds anyway. This will be the moment he shows them he's nothing as they though him to be before. Mizuki gladly took the bait that Naruto laid and went in for a kick that would have crushed any other students bones, but not Naruto. The blond saw the kick coming and countered it with one of his own, he quickly followed up with a punch to the man's stomach that was hard enough to send him flying out of the ring. Mizuki's body crashed into the fence on the other side of the academy training field, leaving a man-sized hole in his wake. Everyone stared in shock at what the blond had just done. Naruto then cringed, "I don't think I held back enough on that one," 

 

"You damn brat," Mizuki mumbled under his breath from where he lay on the other side of the fence, "you'll...pay for..this!" The man fell unconscious after uttering those words, Iruka had gone over to check on his coworker to make sure that the demon didn't manage to kill him. Thankfully, the man was still alive at the moment.

 

Iruka turned a glare on Naruto, "Naruto, that was very dangerous what you just did! You could have killed him!"

 

Naruto rolled his eyes, "that was clearly self-defense, Iruka, chill out." He stated unfazed as he put his hands behind his head without a care in the world, "besides, he attacked first. Did you really expect me to stand there and get beaten up by a fully grown man? I don't know what planet you come from, but that doesn't fly with me." Everyone else was staring at him wide-eyed and in shock, not expecting this development to happen. He thought of something to explain himself, "hmph, looks like all that training I did on my own paid off after all, huh?" He didn't really care if they believed him or not. Meantime, Iruka was staring at Naruto as if he had done the worst thing possible. Although he wished more than anything to scold the boy more for his actions, what good would it do? He kept his cool. He didn't want to accidentally say something that wasn't meant to, especially around certain people. Mrs. Haruno still disliked him for what happened two months ago, but after he explained, she let him off with a warning. He had stopped his timer when he saw Naruto punch Mizuki out of the ring on impulse, his eyes widened when he read the time.

 

"Twelve seconds..." He looked back to Naruto, their eyes met as he wondered who taught the boy how to defend himself when he knew no one else would. Willingly at least. "Alright, Naruto, you win by default."

 

Naruto raised an eyebrow at that, "default? Well, if you want to put down a lie, then be my guest, that's on you." Sure he was pissed at that, but who cared, a pass was a pass.  _"If that's what he has to do to sleep at night, then I pity him?"_

"You can get back in line," Iruka stated after looking over the list. From there, everything happened as usual. The next match was Sasuke, some civilian kids, Bitch, and Slut, then it was time to go back inside. "I will call your names one by one to take the last test. "This is the ninjutsu portion of the test," Iruka explained. Naruto yawned as the tanned chunin left the room with a nasty look in his eye when he threw one last glare at Naruto before leaving the room completely. 

 

While everyone was waiting, there was a lot of whispering going on. All about Naruto. Naruto was used to this behavior from the villagers anyways, so he didn't care. Naruto turned around to see the brave soul that was willing enough to sit next to him after what happened outside. Seeing Shikamaru sitting next to him, a thought came over him,  _"he'll do,"_  was the simple thought as he sat up and faced the Nara. "What's up?"

 

Shikamaru sighed, "troublesome, what was with show earlier. I know for sure that you weren't that quick on your feet before. What kind of 'secret training' have you been doing? Seems kind of fishy." 

 

Naruto could feel a hunger stirring inside of him. Kyuubi did warn him that this might happen when he set his sights on a possible mate. Looks like his first mate will be Shikamaru. Naruto was looking forward to this mating thing the more he thought about."Oh? What are you saying? Do you think I cheated or something?" He asked with a sly smile, wanting to hear Nara's thoughts on his actions.

 

"No, there's no possible way for anyone to cheat in a physical test, not that I know of anyways." Shikamaru sighed, "but still, it's pretty fishy. Almost like you were hiding your true strength up until now."

 

Just then a thought popped into Naruto's head,  _"if I remember correctly, Kyuubi said that the Nara's can control shadows. I wonder what kind of things I could do with such an ability..."_ He smirked at the possibilities, "hmm...knowlage is power, I guess..."

 

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at the blond,  _"is he pulling my leg or something?"_

 

Naruto gained a bored look on his face when he noticed the doubt in the other boy's eyes, "don't worry. It's not like I brought anything to pull a prank on anyone today." 

 

Shikamaru was still doubtful of that but decided to give the blond the benefit of the doubt. "Fine, where shall we meet?" He asked today seemed like a more interesting day already.

 

Naruto thought for a second, "mhmm, you're going before me, so you can meet me behind the school. I don't want anyone overhearing us, so it'll have to be near the forest, got it?" 

 

"What a drag, why do we have to-" Shikamaru was cut off when he was called in for his test. He sighed tiredly, his ever bord expression renewing itself on his facial features, "whatever, I'll be there, but you better come right out once you're done." He stated as he got up from his seat and made his way down the steps to the front so that he could follow the sensei to the testing room. As he walked, he thought about his blond classmate a bit,  _"he's acting funny today, whatever's going on with him is going to be interesting to hear at least. Whether I believe what he says on the matter, well, that will have to wait and see."_

 

 Naruto had a fox-like grin on his face as Shikamaru left the room, he had a warm feeling entering his body that was slowly intoxicating him. He couldn't wait until after school. Speaking of school, Naruto noticed a disturbance in the air of the room, he glanced around to see what it was and found the eyes of Kiba Inuzuka glaring at him with all of his might. As always, Kiba has it out for him. For some reason, since day one, every time Naruto and Kiba would find themselves close to one another, whether it be in the same room, building, or area, the Inuzuka always seemed to try to want to one-up the Uzumaki. Naruto didn't pay it any mind until the Kyuubi gave him a small key piece of information on the Inuzuka clan. Turns out that the members of the Inuzuka clan were more animalistic than Naruto thought, not just in looks, but in mentality as well. Because of this, and some other factors, Kiba was keen on proving that he was the strongest alpha male in the class, even to Sasuke, but mainly to Naruto. Maybe it was the fact that Naruto gave out the same brash vibes as the future dog ninja, or maybe it had something to do with the fox/dog rivalry that, according to Kyuubi, has been going on since the first ninja village was founded. Aka, Konoha. Naruto had no clue what that was all about, not even Kyuubi seemed too interested in divulging that kind of info to the blond, however, that mattered not to him. Since Naruto was planning on having a more than one mate in the future, he thought that Kiba might make a pretty good addition to his pickings. Since the Inuzuka already came back to class with his headband, and the Uzumaki still had some time to kill, Naruto thought that he might as well kill some time. He got up from his seat and walked over to the Inuzuka who was seated two rows down from him. Kiba kept glaring at the blond the whole, time until he took a seat in the empty spot next to the feral boy, once seated, Naruto gave Kiba a good look. Tan skin, brown eyes, dark brown hair, a coat that looks like it was perfect for cold weather...other than the coat, Kiba didn't look anything special really. He had the two red fang marks on his cheeks like the rest of his clan, but that didn't make him special, not really. Neither did his long claw-like nails. 

 

"Kiba, is there a reason why you are always glaring at me?" Naruto asked casually as he leaned back, using the desk behind him as support. He didn't bother to turn around properly in the seat to face the front, why bother? It's not like there was anything new to see in the classroom away.

 

"Hn, it's because I don't like you, baka." Kiba started as if he wasn't considered an idiot by their classmates as well.

 

"Oh? How come? Do you even know?" Naruto asked, leaning his head back as he looked up to the ceiling.

 

"Yeah, it's...it's because, uh...because you smell!" Kiba said after having to think for a second, he covered his nose with his hand to make his point and leaned away from the blond. "You stink, you smell just like a fox too, I hate foxes!"

 

"A fox?! Oh my!" Naruto chuckled, "so you hate me because I smell like an animal that's not even allowed into the village? Have you ever seen a fox before? With all the laws regarding them, I highly doubt it, so in that case, you hate something that you don't even know much about." He chuckled again when he saw the speechless and confused look on Kiba's face.

 

Kiba folded his arms and turned away from the blond boy, "as if I need a reason to hate foxes. Even without meeting one, I know they're all even, the Kyuubi was enough proof as it is." He said in a huff, "besides, you're still a baka, so there," Kiba stuck out his tongue at Naruto before turning back to the class and waiting for everyone who passed to come back.

 

Naruto looked Kiba over for a few seconds more before nodding his head. "That's kind of a so-so answer, Kiba..." he took in a deep breath and got up from the seat. "But hey, you know what, I can show you that not all foxes are evil, you wanna see?"

 

Kiba raised an eyebrow at Naruto, curious about the blond's words and motives. "I thought you said that there were no foxes in the village? How can you show me they're not evil if there aren't any?"

 

Naruto smirked at the boy, "I can show you a fox that's not evil, not even in the slightest. Just follow me, kay?" With that, the blond started walking toward the back door of the class without waiting for the Inuzuka's answer. Kiba hesitated for a bit before getting up from his seat and walking out the door after Naruto. Both boys made their way through the halls, turning the corners quietly without running into a soul, which was natural since everyone was still taking their test. The building was mostly empty by now because not every class took the exams on the same day, some took it a week before, others would have taken it either earlier that day or later. As they walked in silence, Kiba was starting to wonder where Naruto was trying to lead him. It was not long after they left their own classroom when they came across one of the empty classrooms of an already graduated class. Naruto opened the door to the room and looked inside, he walked in when he was satisfied, Kiba followed him in as well and started looking around.

 

"Okay, so, where is it?" Kiba asked after looking around the empty room.

 

"Where's what?" Naruto asked as he closed the door.

 

"The fox, dud, where is it?" Kiba asked as he took another look around before facing the blond again, "you said you can show me a fox that wasn't evil. Or was that a lie?"

 

"Oh, that?" Naruto chuckled softly as he locked the door behind his hand, "you're looking at him."

 

"Huh?" Kiba was confused.

 

"Yep, it's me, I am the fox..." Naruto stated casually with a shrug of his shoulder, he felt a faint thump in the back of his mind and wondered if the Kyuubi had heard him. He disregarded the feeling for later though.

 

"You? You're not a fox, you human," Kiba shot back with a roll of his eyes. He then got a thoughtful look on his face, "well, even if you do smell like one, you also smell human." He looked back at Naruto, "maybe you rub a fox on you before coming to class so you would smell like one. Ha, I know you're game, you can't fool me!" He stated with a victorious smile on his lips as if he had just figured out all the boy's secrets right then and there.

 

Naruto was confused about Kiba's logic but didn't make any moves to correct him. He shrugged his shoulders as he held his hands up in surrender. "Alright, alright, you got me, I can't beat the logic of the great Kiba Inuzuka, can I? It seems like you figured out all my plans," he said in mock sorrow.

 

Kiba gave a jolly laugh, "hahaha, I knew it, you can't fool me...wait a minute, are you making fun of me?!" He pointed an accusing finger at the blond and glared again.

 

Naruto smirked, without saying anything, he stepped towards the Inuzuka with a sudden punch that the boy barely saw coming. Kiba was just barely able to dodge the punch thrown at him, but he was too late to see the second one that came up after, it looked to be twice as fast as the first. Before he knew anything else, Kiba's lights went out for a while. The next time he woke up, he found that something heavy was over him, he had a bad feeling in his gut and his senses were tingling. He opened his eyes to see a wooden desk before him, for a second he thought he had dreamed the whole encounter up, but then he felt something move behind him. His eyes widened to the size of dinner plates when his brain finally caught up with him and he realized the situation he was now in. Kiba was now currently bent over a desk with his pants down and someone was standing behind him. He could feel the person trying to press something into his butthole, but he couldn't tell what it was, all he knew that he was not liking his new position. Then he heard the voice of the person and he couldn't believe his ears, "ah, I see you're awake now, ne, Kiba-chan? Don't worry, I promise I'll be as gentle as I can be, after all..." the blond leaned forward enough to whisper into Kiba's ear, "it's my first time too." Kiba's eyes widened further, this couldn't be real was what he kept trying to tell himself, but then he felt whatever it was Naruto was trying to put in his butt finally go in. At first, it was slow, but it suddenly shot forward, causing Kiba to yelp in discomfort. "Sorry about that, I got excited suddenly, you'll forgive me soon enough, right, Kiba-chan?" Naruto's voice san in Kiba's ear as he started to move his hips a little.

 

"Wha-what are y-you d-doing to m-me..." Kiba gritted out as he tried his best to push Naruto off his back, but that wasn't working.

 

"Isn't it obvious? I'm going to give you the ride of your life," Naruto said as he pushed his dick back in, reveling in th heat of Kiba's body. "You're really tight, it's hard to move, but I'm not complaining," he pulled back out for a second as he pushed in again. He built up a slow but steady rhythm as he speeds his thrusting up, as he did, his dick brushed up against something inside of Kiba that made the boy under him moan. "Oh?! What's this??" He said in fascination.

 

Meanwhile, Kiba felt horrified, he couldn't believe that that sound came out of HIS mouth just now. He felt like a bitch, and he was starting to sound like one now too. This was something that he would not stand for. "Get off of me, dobe! I'm warning you, as soon as I get up, I'm gonna-aaah!"

 

"Ah, there it is again," Naruto smirked, "looks like I found a sweet spot, eh, Kiba-chan?" He chuckled as he stood back up, he had one hand holding both of Kiba's wrist while his other went down to the boy's hips. Holding them in place, Naruto pulled out again, trying to aim for that spot again before thrusting back in quickly, successfully hitting his mark. Kiba couldn't help the moan that escaped his lips, and he couldn't cover his mouth up either.

 

"What the hell do you think you're doing, dobe?! I'm not some bitch you ca-aaahh, n-n-no, s-s-stop! Aaahh! I-I'm gonna kick you're aaah ass when I-oooh-!" By this point, Kiba was finding it hard for him to speak let alone form sentences coherently. Since Naruto was now hitting his sweet spot with all the force he could muster, Kiba was quickly starting to forget what he was fighting the blond for. He knew that he had to fight, that it was this action alone that was going to make or break him in the end, but he couldn't remember why that was as Naruto's thrust speed up to the point that it shook Kiba's body. Every thrust Kiba received was driving his body mad. He was already leaking pre-cum and because this was his first time, he wasn't going to last long. By the time that Naruto felt himself getting close, Kiba's body was shaking. He could feel Kiba's inner muscles starting to tighten around his dick, even more, making it even harder to move. Yet he kept going, he wasn't about to let that stop him, leaning forward again, he pulled Kiba's hoodie from over his head so that he could clearly see the expression on his face. Kiba was blushing and panting like a dog in heat, he could feel himself getting closer and closer to the edge with every thrust of Naruto's dick, and damn was it big. 

 

Kiba wondered how, exactly, was his body not ripped in half by now? He could feel the tip of Naruto's dick reaching his stomach, a few more inches and he was sure the blond would fucking his guts as well as his ass. This was the thought that sent Kiba flying over the edge with a pleasure filled moan. Even though Naruto was still thrusting into his body with force, Kiba knew he couldn't make good on his earlier promises. His legs felt so weak that the only thing holding him up right now was Naruto's body, his whole body felt as if the life had been drained from it. He could do nothing else but to lay there, pained against the side of the desk, and wait for Naruto to finish, he wouldn't admit that that was the best orgasm he's ever had, even when he would jerk himself off in his room at night, it would never feel as good as how Naruto made him feel just now. Since he could no longer make threats, Kiba decided that he would just give up and let Naruto finish him off, it's not like he could do anything about it now that he had come. Naruto noticed the chance in Kiba's body after he came. He could still feel Kiba's ass retracting from the orgasm and thought that this would be a good time to stop. He was already close himself, so he let himself cum deep inside Kiba's body, reveling in the wetness. Once he was satisfied, he slowly pulled himself out of Kiba's body, he didn't let him fall thought, that would just be mean and Naruto Uzumaki wasn't a mean guy. 

 

"You feeling okay, Kiba-chan?" Naruto asked as he helped Kiba into a comfortable position on the floor. When Kiba was situated on the floor, he looked the boy over, but Kiba refused to meet his eyes. Naruto raised a brow at his actions, "what's up with you? Don't tell me you're embarrassed, it's not like anyone's going to know about what we did."

 

"That doesn't matter...." Kiba said as he clenched his fit, he could still feel the blond in his ass and he had to stop himself from blushing at the thought. He glanced down between the blond's legs and looked away quickly,  _"damnit! I wasn't imagining it, the baka really is that big! What is that? like nine inches? Ten? Damn you Naruto, how are you so lucky when I'm still only five inches?"_ He thought with anime tears falling down his face.

 

Naruto wasn't sure what Kiba was thinking right now, but that didn't matter now. He said he would explain that not all foxes were evil, and he never goes back on his word. "Okay, whatever, a deals a deal." The blond said as he stood up fully while tucking his dick back into his pants.

 

"Huh? What deal?" Kiba asked looking up at Naruto, "we never made any deal idiot."

 

"Duh, I told you I was going to show you that not all foxes are evil. Even though you never really agreed to it, and actually, I don't think I thought about it until now really..." Naruto scratched behind his head as he thought over his words, he sighed, "but, since I pretty much claimed you, we're cool now, so you can hear the truth from the source, okay?"

 

"Huh? Truth, source, what? Naruto did you hit your head or something?" Kiba asked.

 

Naruto nodded his head, "yep, just meet me behind the school after my turn and I'll show you everything that you need to convince you. Deal?"

 

Kiba raised his eyebrow, this set up seemed fishy to him, but then again, he was curious about this whole fox thing. He shrugged his shoulders, "yeah, sure, whatever." He stated as he tried to stand up until he found that he didn't really have the energy for it. He sighed, "could you..."

 

"Help you up? Of course, Kiba-chan, all you have to do is ask!" Naruto said cheerfully as he helped the Inuzuka stand up and pulled up his pants. Kiba was blushing the whole time, once they were both decent enough to go back to class, he turned back to Kiba, "so, did you have fun?" He asked with a sly smile.

 

Kiba's face turned into a tomato. "SHUT UP, DON'T CALL ME THAT!" He yelled and tried to hit Naruto over the head like he saw Sakura do so many times before, but at the very last second, Naruto moved away and caught his wrist. Kiba was surprised by the speed Naruto used to move and before he realized what was going on, Naruto had pulled Kiba closer to him. Naruto used this moment of shock to pull Kiba into a deep kiss that left the other boy breathless, a sense of safety and love filled Kiba's chest before spreading throughout his whole body. When their lips parted, Kiba found himself staring into a beautiful sparkling ocean that went on for miles...no, wait, those were just Naruto's eyes. 

 

Naruto chuckled, breaking the Inuzuka out of his trance, "well, if I knew this was the way to keep you quite, then I would have done it ages ago." 

 

"...Wha?" Was all Kiba could manage to say, he didn't recall when they started walking, but he did note other things. Like how the air in the hallway suddenly seemed to be filled with hostility, the kind you could find when a fight was about to break out. Kiba felt as if he had just woken up from a dream or escaped some kind of jutsu when his eyes finally landed on the man standing at the end of the hallway. It was Iruka with an angry expression on his face. He looked even angrier than Kiba had ever seen before, ever as if he was about to fight his greatest enemy.

 

"Naruto, Kiba, what are you two doing out of the classroom?" Iruka asked seriously, but he only looked at Naruto when he spoke.

 

Kiba looked back to Naruto to see why only to find that the blond in question had a calm and collected face. "Whatever do you mean, Iruka sensei? Can't we leave the classroom to go to the bathroom or something? Is that a crime now?" Naruto asked with an innocent look on his face.

 

"My instructions were clear, Uzumaki, you were to stay in the classroom until your name was called. But when I went back there, both you and Kiba were gone," Iruka stated as he folded his arms. "Would you care to explain why?"

 

"I did explain, I went to the bathroom, and Kiba so happened to be going at the same time. There's nothing wrong with that, is there?" Naruto asked, Iruka's eyes narrowed, something that Naruto expected, "what? Am I not allowed to go to the bathroom with other people? That seems like a stupid rule," he looked back at Kiba, "don't you think so?"

 

"Uh, erm, yeah," Kiba said softly. He was a little taken aback by the situation for some reason. Before, if he were to witness Iruka sensei being extra harsh on Naruto for whatever reason, then he would brush it off as the norm, but now...it all of a sudden feels like he's seeing this treatment for the first time. Why? This happened all the time, even some of the kids would join in and make up lies about the blond to make his punishment worse. That's when Kiba realized, they were encouraged to do it. The sensei. The parents. Even his own mother seemed to be in on it, whenever they saw Naruto walking around, either his mother or sister would tell him to not be nice to Naruto. Of course, Kiba would listen, why wouldn't he? These people were his family, why wouldn't he listen to what they had to say? Then again, there were times when Kiba found himself questioning his own actions against the blond...He didn't understand it, maybe he should go with Naruto after school to find out about that too, it seemed even more important than the thing about the foxes.

 

Iruka scuffed, "whatever, let's go, Uzumaki, it's your turn." He stated as he turned away from the two boys and started walking towards the testing room without waiting to see if Naruto was following him or not.

 

 

Naruto sighed, he was used to this already, but it looked like Iruka was being extra hard on the blond today. Kiba was wondering why. Why was he noticing all of this today...was it because they fucked just now? "Ah, somethings never really change, do they?" Kiba looked to Naruto when he spoke, wondering if he was talking to him. Naruto noticed Kiba's look, he waved his hand at him as if to disregard the question, "nevermind, I'll meet you after school, 'kay?" He asked as he started walking in the direction that Iruka left in.

 

"Uh, o-okay..." Kiba said as he watched Naruto walking away. He slowly made his way back to class absent-mindedly, when he got there, he was about to open the door when he someone did it for him. Kiba looked up to see who it was and was a little surprised when he saw Shikamaru, his secret crush from since they started their last two years of the academy. "S-Shikamaru, what's up man? You going somewhere?" He asked casually, hoping that the Nara didn't notice him stutter just now. 

 

Shikamaru was just made his way to the door so that he could start heading to the back of the school to wait for Naruto since Iruka just came calling for him. It was when he was opening the door that he noticed Kiba just coming back. He had been curious as to where both the Inuzuka and Uzumaki had gone after he came back and didn't spot either. Of course, he wasn't looking for Kiba before, he just noticed the lack of a loud voice in the room, which happened to always belong to either Kiba or Naruto. Most likely being Kiba since Naruto was always kicked out of class for some prank or something before the lesson really picked up. "Oh, Kiba, are you just coming back?"

 

"Uh, yeah, why?" Kiba asked.

 

Shikamaru shrugged his shoulder, "no reason, just curious, it's been almost an hour and a half since I came back from the testing room. Did you get lost going to the bathroom or something?" He asked curiously.

 

"What, lost-no! I didn't, I was just..." A light blush crossed Kiba's cheeks as he remembered what he was just doing with a certain blond.

 

Shikamaru would have asked about the blush, but it was too much of a drag to bother with, so he dropped it. Besides, it's not like Kiba would tell him what it was if it was as personal as it seemed. He shrugged his shoulders again, "whatever, see ya later," he said as he walked passed Kiba and started walking down the hallway.

 

"Huh? Wait, are you going somewhere?" Kiba asked, wanting to talk to his crush more.

 

"Yeah, I'm meeting a friend behind the school, it's no big deal," Shikamaru stated in a lazy tone as he kept on walking. He wanted to make sure he found a good spot to do some cloud watching before Naruto came alone.

 

"Wait, hold on, what friend? I thought Chouji was your only friend," Kiba asked as he caught up with Shikamaru.

 

"Shows what you know, I have more friends than just Chouji, y'know," Shikamaru said with a roll of his eyes.

 

Kiba raised an eyebrow, "oh yeah? Like who?"

 

"What a drag..." Shikamaru sighed, not answering the Inuzuka.

 

* * *

**At the same time**

_Testing room_  

 

Naruto walked into the room after Iruka. The room was simple, one window on the wall across from the door, a single table with two chairs for the chunin instructors, another chair in the corner with a log sitting on top. Naruto walked towards the center of the room after closing the door and waited for his supposed sensei to give him an order. He also noticed that Mizuki had finally woken up from his nap from earlier, both chunin was giving Naruto nasty glares. Naruto was unfazed.

 

"Okay Naruto, all you have do is perform the transformation jutsu, the replacement jutsu, and the clone jutsu." Iruka instructed, "begin when you're ready.

 

Naruto nodded and went straight into the first jutsu, transformation. A puff of smoke covered his body, when it disappeared, there stood the Yondime Hokage, perfectly imitated from the memories he was shown by the Kyuubi. He looked exactly like the Yondime Hokage, too, all he had to do was change his hight and smile. Since he looked so much like the Yondime, Naruto decided that he would have his transformation wear the larger version of his old jumpsuit before it was ripped to shreds. When Iruka and Mizuki saw the transformation of the Yondime Hokage wearing Naruto's old jumpsuit, they had to remind themselves that this was Naruto Uzumaki, the demon child. 

 

And not the late Minato Namikaze.

 

 Seeing their reaction go from shock to disgust again, Naruto changed back into his usual self and went into the second jutsu, replacement. Without a word, he did the right hand signs and replaced himself with the log and chair in the corner. While he was over there, he did the last jutsu, clone. However, while he was no good at the regular clone jutsu, he was a master of the shadowclone jutsu that the Kyuubi taught him over their two-month break. He made three clones and had one of them replace the log and chair with itself. The center of the room was once again filled with smoke, when it cleared, the chunin saw Naruto standing in the center of the room, they looked back to where the chair was and saw three more Narutos. Mizuki and Iruka were actually a little impressed for a second until they remembered that it was Naruto who did that, this gave them conflicted emotions towards the blond. They were supposed to hate him because he was the 'reincarnation of the Kyuubi no Yoki', but then again, they were teachers that were meant to teach students. Well, Iruka was feeling a little more conflicted than Mizuki because he was starting to see a boy instead of a demon, yet that wasn't enough to forget what happened that night, twelve full years ago. Iruka looked over the clone that was in front of him, thinking that it was the real Naruto.

 

"Hm, so it seems that you've finally learned how to make a decent enough clone, eh, Naruto. Why don't you bring them over here so we can have a better look at them to see how well you did this time."

 

The clone in front of them shrugged his shoulders, he signaled to the two other clones standing next to their creator. The two clones walked over to the table with the first clone while the original Naruto placed the log from the chair on the floor and sat down. Mizuki and Iruka got up from their seats and looked over all three clones closely. "Hey, Iruka, are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

 

"Huh? What is it, Mizuki?" Iruka asked.

 

"These clones...they're solid," Mizuki stated as he placed his hand on the head of one of the clones, he could feel how soft the blond hair was. Like the softest fur he's ever felt in his whole life, some people would kill thousands to get a fur coat this soft.

 

Before coming to school today, Kyuubi had instructed Naruto to take a bath in the river. At the time, Naruto didn't see the point but did what he was told. As he did, he noticed a light shin from his abdomen, when he looked, he found a seal there. He wasn't very far in the seal training Kyuubi had started him on the day before, so he had no clue what kind of seal he was seeing. Kyuubi took that moment to explain to him that this was the seal that was holding him. Not only that but because Naruto had accepted his deal, Kyuubi was able to merge some of his chakra into Naruto's genes so that later, as he grew up, he would be able to grow tails like the Kyuubi to show his strength. Within time, Naruto would be able to absorb all nine of Kyuubi's tails and be able to free him from his prison without killing him. However, the only way that this will work is if Naruto can find a way to lessen the kickback that releasing the Kyuubi from the Shinigami seal would cause. Breaking the death god's seal along was a task, but to also do it in a way that would not shorten your life further or killing you all together was another thing. As it stood now, the only thing that was for certain was that Naruto was going to absorb the Kyuubi's tails into his system and become a human tailed beast. If he's unable to find a way to free the Kyuubi before his last tail was fully absorbed, then the Kyuubi would no longer exist. As Naruto sat in the corner and thought about this, he didn't know how to feel, if he absorbed the Kyuubi's tails and release him, then the Kyuubi might leave in order to go back to the underworld to recover his strength. Doing so would take a long time since the time difference in hell was much slower than in the world of the living. There is also that possibility that if Naruto was unable to release the Kyuubi before absorbing the last tail, then Kyuubi would disappear, he would still be alone and would be forced to rule all of hell by himself. There was a lot to think about, he was already on his way to absorbing the first of the nine tails after only two months of the Kyuubi's guidance. Now that Naruto was thinking about it, he wasn't sure if he was ready to say goodbye to the fox so soon, even though they've been together since he was born, he hadn't known him until two months prior. These thoughts brought a dark cloud over the blond's head. 

 

 **"Oi, brat, pay attention, those meat sacks have been trying to get your attention for the past five minutes!"** Kyuubi's voice roared in the back of his head.

 

"Huh?! What?" Naruto asked as he looked up to see both Iruka and Mizuki looking at him, his face went back to a neutral state. "Yeah?"

 

"How is it possible? Before you couldn't even make a single clone, now this?!" Iruka exclaimed, "what's the meaning of this?"

 

"Isn't it obvious, Iruka? he cheated!" Mizuki stated.

 

Naruto raised an eyebrow at that, "how can someone cheat in making clones? Didn't you both look inspect my clones closely?" He asked, "did you find any mirrors or strings or whatever to say that they're fake?"

 

"Huh?" Iruka and Mizuki weren't really expecting the blond to make a come back like that. "Uh, well, no," Iruka answered.

 

"Exactly, so that means that these clones have to be real, right?" Naruto went on, looking at the two adult males as if daring them to say otherwise. It looked like Mizuki would be taking up the bet.

 

"In that case, it's a genjutsu!" Mizuki explained, "right now, we have to be under a genjutsu of his making. That's the only way that I can actually see him pass anything!"

  

Naruto rolled his eyes, "don't be an ass, Mizuki," he stated as he stood up from the chair and look deep into Mizuki's eyes. Making the said man feel as if he was waking up a beast. "Do you really think that a boy that was the dead last for so many years. A boy that couldn't even form the simplest of genjutsus to save his life, could put two fully grown ninja that were well trained and have a shit tone more experience under genjutsu? Think about, and I mean really think." He folded his arms as he waited for the silver-haired ninja's reply, but there wasn't one, "that's what I thought." He turned to Iruka, "does mean that I passed, or have I done something else by default?"

 

Iruka wasn't sure what to think about it. He was still conflicted, but this time, he was going to make a logical decision, "no, you pass Naruto...congradulations." He  _knew_  Naruto was right, but still, he wasn't sure he wanted him to be. Still, when he became a sensei at the academy, he thought that he was going to be fair to all of his students, but it turns out that that wasn't the case right now because of what he allowed to happen to Naruto. His grades were horrid and it was not something that the blond could really help it. The other teachers told him that this was how it was supposed to be, and for a long time, he believed them, but now, if he continued this way, would he be no better than the enemy ninjas they fight again in the field?

 

Naruto yawned, "it seems like sense has finally returned to one of you," he stated as he walked pass both of them. He picked up a headband from the table they were sitting at, "and here I thought that the Kyuubi was never going to become a ninja." He gave a small chuckle as he looked back at the stick chunin, "maybe there is some hope for this pathetic village after all." He chuckled again and left the room.

 

After Naruto left the room, Iruka and Mizuki shared a look, "did he just..." Iruka asked but couldn't finish the thought out loud.

 

"How the hell does he know about the fox?!" Mizuki asked, more to himself than anything. He threw out the last hopes of his current plans for the blond jinchuriki out the window because Iruka decided to pass the little brat. He was pissed, his last hope was hinged on the boy not knowing jack about the fox inside of him, that was when Mizuki would have to coax the boy out to the forest after stealing the scroll of sealing for him. That would be when he would show up, tell him about the fox, kill him, and by extension, the Kyuubi, and become a hero before escaping the village with the scroll. But now that plan was up in smoke, " _he even knows the shadow clone jutsu, how is that even possible? Someone must be looking out for the brat or something,"_ he thought to himself as he seeth in anger.

 

"I have no idea, but someone needs to let Hokage-sama know about this right away," Iruka said. He looked over to Mizuki for a second before handing him the checklist, "I'll head over to the Hokage Tower right now and inform the Hokage myself. You stay here and finish the test, you should only have two more after Ino," he stated and disappeared in a leaf shushin before Mizuki could say anything.

 

"Wha-damnit! There goes my chance to sneak into the tower," Mizuki grumbled before he started to head back to the classroom.

 

* * *

 

 

**With Naruto**

 

Naruto walked down the hallway to the back of the school, as he did so, he looked at the leaf headband he now had. He frowned,  **"are you dissatisfied with your performance in there, brat?"** The Kyuubi asked.

 

"No, it's not that. I just don't feel like being a ninja for a village that's not even grateful for human sacrifices. It's appalling actually," he stated as he put the headband in his pocket.

 

The Kyuubi scuffed,  **"I know that you mean, kit. But, you already have the tools to make them all pay for what they've done to you."**

 

"You mean with the training you're giving me?"

 

**"That too, but not what I was going to say. Think about it kit, you're already set on building a harem, right?"**

 

"Yeah," Naruto thought for a second, "so I guess I'll have to mate all of there best or more 'elite' ninjas, right?"

 

**"Ah, so it seems that my training if starting to pay off. Yes, that's exactly what I was thinking, but, don't just go for those that have already made a name for themselves. Try for those in your generation on down, your influence could very well build an army of your own and put the older generation at a disadvantage."**

 

Naruto smirked, "I like the way you think foxy. I may just do that, but in my own way, it won't just be an army, they will be loyal friends that will see the truth for what it is. I'll also have allies that I can count on if I ever need help in the future."

 

The Kyuubi liked what he was hearing,  **"then, in that case, you should try for allies in other villagers. Preferably jinchuriki like you, they will already be more likely to trust you since you are they like them. Once you make friends with the other tailed beast, then I have a feeling that you could be an unstoppable force in the future."**

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**To be continued...**


	3. The Pack

**_Previously_ **

 

_Naruto returns to school only to receive the same treatment as always. He decides that enough is enough and meets the Kyuubi. The Kyuubi offers a deal that will guarantee strength and power as the blond had always dreamed of. After being kicked out of class, as usual, Kyuubi instructs him to go into the forest so they may start the training he talked about. Months later, Naruto returns to take the genin exams just in time. This is when his plans come into motion as he decides on his first mate and gets a second at the same time. During his performance in the testing room, Naruto thinks back to earlier that morning when he spoke to the Kyuubi, as it turns out, Kyuubi had been able to do some changes to the seal so that Naruto could absorb his tails and possibly set him free in the future. However, if Naruto was unsuccessful in this, then that would mean that the Kyuubi would disappear. Naruto comes back to reality to see that he passed the exams, but with some resistance. When he leaves the room, he heads to the back of the school in order to keep up with his earlier appointment with his new mates. On the way, he makes more plans with the Kyuubi for the future, Naruto decides that the village must pay for all that they have done to him. He was well on his way to gaining his first tail, but what Kyuubi haven't told him about his tails will be something else that Naruto will have to figure out soon enough. As for ruling over the underworld...things from that realm may just be coming to pay him a visit very soon._

 

* * *

 

**Now**

 

"Hey, what's this all about Naruto?" Shikamaru asked when he caught sight of Naruto. He was a little disappointed that he was not able to do any cloud watching with Kiba around. 

 

Naruto looked between the two boys standing by the edge of the forest at the back of their school. He sighed deeply as he walked over to them, "so, you're both here, huh? Okay, let's get this over with now," he walked past them to move further into the wooded area. "This way."

 

"Where are you going?" Kiba asked as he followed the blond, "didn't you say you were going to show me something?"

 

"Show you something?" Shikamaru questioned.

 

"Huh, oh yeah, why are you here, Shikamaru?" Kiba asked, dodging the question.

 

"Hmm...we'll see," Shikamaru stated as they both followed the blond. They walked in silence for a while until Naruto finally decided to stop. 

 

Kiba and Shikamaru were curious about what the blond was going to say or show them. Naruto turned around to face them, "come over here and hold my hand," he said as he holds out his hand.

 

"Why?" Kiba asked but still held one of the blonds outstretched hand.

 

"What a drag," Shikamaru sighed again as he grabbed the other hand.

 

"You'll see soon enough," Naruto stated as he closed his eyes, as he did, he focused his chakra on the two hands he was holding. He took in a deep breath of air before pulling both boys into his mindscape.

 

* * *

**Mindscape**

 

Kiba and Shikamaru gasped, they blinked for only a second to see that their surroundings have changed. Instead of a lush green forest, there was a dark sewer. "What...what is this place," Kiba asked.

 

"This is my mind," Naruto said casually as he walked the all too familiar hall of his mind. As he walked down the path, doors started to appear, some ranging from dirty and worn out to broken and battered. Some of the doors names could still be seen, others looked like they had been scraped off or ripped. Naruto ignored them, already knowing what was behind each one since he had lived through each. Naruto made his way down the hallway, past all the pipes that ran along the walls, through the muddy water that flooded the floor.

 

Shikamaru and Kiba looked at their surroundings curiously, "what is this place? Where are we?" Kiba asked.

 

"I already told you, it's my mind," Naruto said as he turned a corner at the end of the hall.

 

"No, really, hey, wait up!" Kiba shouted as he ran after Naruto.

 

Shikamaru looked up at the pipes closely for any close as to where they were. It looked like they were in a sewer, but it didn't smell. It looked like they were walking in dirty water, but his feet weren't getting wet even though the water was coming up to his ankles. "Strange place," he whispered to himself and started trying to catch up to the others. He paid attention to the walks and other surrounding things as he passed them. He noticed the doors and what little writing was still on some of them, he couldn't really read most of them, but maybe if he came back, he could find out what they said or used to say. Shikamaru put that in the back of his mind and walked in the direction that he saw Naruto and Kiba walking away in. He caught up to them as quickly as he could, when he did, he came across an opening that went into a large cave-like room. In the room, this is where he found Kiba and Naruto waiting for him. "Naruto, what is this place? Are we even still in the village?" Kiba was asking.

 

"How many times do I have to tell you? This is my mindscape," Naruto sighed as he looked over to the other side of the room. "Alright, I got them here, let's begin.

 

 Kiba and Shikamaru turned towards the cage that Naruto was talking to. Kiba was about why he was talking to no one when they saw a pair of red eyes appear behind the bars.  **"So you have, and what, per se, were your intentions of bringing them here? I only showed you how to bring other jinchuriki into your mindscape, Naruto, not these flesh bags."** Came the deep grumbling voice of the Kyuubi as he looked down at the two boys standing with his container from the shadows of the cage. He wasn't willing enough to reveal his appearance to them just yet, he wanted to get information first.

 

"Relax, they'll be my mates soon enough, so why not get this out of the way now?" Naruto reasoned, "I would rather them see you for what you are then to hear the overly dramatic and biased tails from the villagers later." 

 

"Biased tails? Mates? Naruto, what the hell is really going on here?" Kiba asked, very confused and upset, he wanted to know where they were, but Naruto insist that they are in his mind. That was something that Kiba couldn't wrap his mind around, it was too surreal. More than that even, when he imagined the inside of someone's head, he would not imagine a sewer filled with water, nor would he guess there would be a cage with a mysterious figure inside with large red eyes. And that voice, it sounded so demonic...Kiba was starting to feel a little nervous about all this, "is...is this a prank or something?" 

 

Naruto looked back at Kiba, he could sense his nervousness, "no, it's not." He placed a hand on Kiba's shoulder, then one on Shikamaru's shoulder, getting both of their attention. "Don't worry, what I'm about to show you is actually a really, really big village secret that neither you or anyone in our generation for that matter, is supposed to know."

 

"If that's so, then how come you know it?" Shikamaru inquired curiously.

 

"Because the secret involves me. That's why I was able to take you both to this place," Naruto explained.

 

"If this is really is your mind, then why does it look so...uh," Kiba looked around, not knowing how to put it.

 

"Dirty? Smelly? A place that no one would want to live in let alone visit ever?" Naruto asked, giving Kiba the option to chose from his choice of words.

 

"Uh, yeah, that," Kiba said as he scratched the back of his head.

 

Naruto chuckled, "that's apart of the reason why I brought you both here." He explained, "today, I wanted you both to know a dirty little secret that everyone, even your parents have been hiding from you since you guys were babies. It all started on the night that the Kyuubi attacked." 

 

"But we already know about the night that the Kyuubi attacked. It killed so many, how could we ever forget?!" Kiba stated he remembered his mother telling him that his father had been amongst the ones that had been killed that night.

 

"That might be what you heard, but that is not what really happened. At least, that's not the full story." Naruto started, "the night that I was born, the Kyuubi was already sealed inside my mother, Kushina Uzumaki. A member of a great clan called the Uzumaki clan. The person that sealed him was my great aunt, Mito Uzumaki, his first container. Some years later, when my mother got pregnant with me, she decided to keep me, instead of having an abortion. There were many people that didn't want her to have me, but she went against all of them and because of her pregnancy, the seal became weak. Although the Kyuubi could have escaped at any time during the birthing process, the Yondime Hokage was there to keep him trapped in the seal on my mother. When he finally did escape, it wasn't by his own choice. There was a man wearing an orange mask that found where they were hiding, he took me as a hostage in order to separate me from my parents. His plan worked because the Yondime caught me when the man tossed me in the air, that allowed the masked man to get to his target easily. The man ripped the Kyuubi from my mother's seal so forcefully that he was disoriented, so much so that his guard was down. In his confused state, the man put the fox under a genjutsu. It forced him, to attack everything he saw, making him believe that he was attacking his worst enemy. I'm guessing that the masked man had some jutsu in place that transported him in the middle of town when he was forced to kill everyone that got in his way while he was under the jutsu. By the time he broke out of the jutsu, he was already being resealed by my father, Minato Namikaze. Also known as the Yellow flash. Before his soul was eaten by the shinigami himself. After that day, if the Kyuubi wanted to continue his existence, he had to heal me to stay alive. I don't expect you to believe me, but I do have proof of what I say is true."

 

Both boys were silent as they listen to the tail. Kiba was shocked while Shikamaru was still trying to process the information. Kiba couldn't believe his ears, his father, had been killed by the Kyuubi. It was true, but it wasn't the Kyuubi's fault? That was something that felt like some bad joke for some reason, he couldn't believe it. Kiba backed away from Naruto, looking at the blond up and down, then turning to the cage. "So that is...K-Kyuubi?"

 

Naruto nodded, "yes." The blond turned his eyes from Kiba's awed face to the deep red eyes behind the cage,  _"he's not saying anything still? What more is he waiting for?"_

 

Kiba turned towards the blond, "show me." He said, he had a look in his eyes that said that he was still not believing what Naruto was saying. "Show me the truth, I want to see everything! There's no way that my dad died because of someone else other than the fox! My ma told me...she told me it was...so-so it has to be!"

 

Naruto watched as tears formed in Kiba's eyes. He could feel all the emotions coming from Kiba, it was even stronger as they were in his mindscape. He couldn't feel Shikamaru's emotions as strongly as Kiba's, that was telling him something interesting. Naruto nodded, he looked towards the Kyuubi, "where's the door?" He asked.

 

The Kyuubi didn't move from his shadowy spot, his eyes shifted to the side of his cage where the walls were still able to be seen. A metal door with a long handle appeared, it looked much dirtier than the other doors that they had passed to get here. However, due to it being made out of metal, it wasn't as beaten as the others. Naruto walked up to the door, reading what it said,  _'Base Memories'_ he grabbed hold of the handle of the door, "this is it." He looked back to Kiba, "let's go, you said you wanted to see it right?" Kiba nodded and walked towards the door, Naruto looked over to Shikamaru who was staring up at the red eyes of the Kyuubi. "Aren't you coming?" 

 

"...Yeah," Shikamaru said after a second of continued eye contact with the hidden Kyuubi.

 

All three boys entered the space behind the door, it closed behind them when they were all through. As they walked down the space, they came across pictures that seemed to move as they walked past them. From the time that Naruto entered the academy, the time that Naruto pulled his first prank. The time that Naruto ran away from a group of ANBU that was still being trained to join the ranks, and how he escaped all of them. There were so many memories that seemed like they were bright at first, but as they continued on their path, both boys noticed how each memory started to get darker and darker. It continued until all they could see were what looked like scenes from a sick and twisted nightmare. Shikamaru looked onto each image, seeing some of his own clansmen involved made him wonder what alternative reality he had just entered. Shikamaru wasn't the only one wonder that, as Kiba was seeing some of his own clansmen involved in some of the nightmare scenes that they passed. Luckily, the memories they were seeing did not emit any sounds from them or else they were sure they wouldn't be able to walk further. They would want to turn back and run home where they could continue their lives in ignorance like before.

 

"We're here," Naruto spoke as they stopped at one memory that seemed to be almost blank. He turned to the two boys, "put your hands on this image and you will see everything that I explained to you to be true. 

 

Kiba and Shikamaru did as they were told, they looked at the image that seemed blank and placed both their hands on it. They thought they would feel a glass that would separate the image from them like a picture frame or a movie screen, but that wasn't the case. When their hands came in contact with the image, they were both instantly pulled into the memory where they would experience it first hand. When they opened their eyes, they had no idea what was happening, they were the Kyuubi, but at the same time, they weren't, Shikamaru concluded that they were seeing things from a point of view of the memory holder. Kiba was just going along for the ride, not sure what he should be doing now other than just watching. They saw the moment when Kyuubi was sealed inside of Mito Uzumaki, how he was locked into a birdcage, but was allowed to see through her eyes. They saw when Mito taught the Kyuubi about sealing in secret, and how they had made a bond that was close to friendship, the closest that the Kyuubi had ever been to having one in his long lifespan. They saw the moment when Mito decided that she was ready to join her husband and desisted son. When she called for her great-niece from Uzu while it still stood. They saw when the Kyuubi was sealed into Kushina Uzumaki, how she wasn't as nice to the Kyuubi as Mito was since she crucified the fox on a moon with giant thorn piercing through his midsection painfully. They saw the moment when Naruto came into being, how he formed in Kushina's mindscape as a tree that bared two kinds of fruits. Shikamaru thought that seemed a bit odd, but he guessed that it was a foreboding image that was to come. They saw when Kushina went into labor up to the point where the masked man came into the picture. From there, it was just like Naruto said it happened. Since it looked like they were seeing things from the Kyuubi's standpoint, they saw the genjutsu that he was put under. It wasn't a very pleasant one, to say the least. 

 

The genjutsu took place in a beautiful setting. There were sakura trees everywhere, only their letters turned red every time they fell from the tree. There was a temple that floated over the water, the steps that led up to it looked like it went on for hours. Inside the temple, they were showed quite an erotic scene, a tall, handsome red-haired man was fucking a woman before an audience of women and men who were also fucking each other. The memory seemed to be focused on the man, not the others, the redhead had muscles the likes that they had never seen, his skin was perfectly tanned, not too dark, not too fair. They caught a glimpse of his eyes, they were a deep red. As they watched the scene play out, they saw a man standing off to the side, they couldn't make him out for some reason because the memory of the figure seemed to be distorted somehow. The unknown figure came over to the redhaired man, they talked for a bit while the redhead continued to fuck the woman, they couldn't hear what they were saying, that part of the memory also seemed to be distorted. Suddenly, there was a scream that filled the air, the sound of a baby crying, when they looked around to find out what the source of the source was, they were shocked to see another unidentified figure in the room. This one was taller than the first unidentified figure, this person also seemed to radiate power from across the room. The newcomer didn't seem to be welcomed in the room as everyone around him looked to be trying to get away from them. The new figure took out a knife and plunged it into the heart of the closest person to them, killing that person instantly. The redhead and the first figure ran towards the second, a fight ensued, the redhead looked to be beyond angry at the second figure as they fought. With every attack that the redhead tried against the second figure, the second figure would dodge and kill another innocent person. This went on for what felt like hours until the whole room was destroyed and filled with the bodies of the audience from earlier. The room was painted in blood and the scenery no longer looked beautiful. When the redhead finally stopped the second figure, he came to realize that everyone he cared about was now dead. Even the first figure that he was talking to. The red-haired man fell to his knees next to the first figure, as he did, Shikamaru and Kiba were able to get a good look at the person. They had bright blue eyes, light red hair, and fair skin, much like the woman that the man was fucking earlier. This person was young, he didn't look to be any older than ten or eleven at most, looking between the redhaired man and this boy, it was clear to see that it was his son. 

 

Just as suddenly as they came to realize that this man was the Kyuubi in human form, the scene changed. They couldn't tell if the jutsu was over or not, because everything still felt fuzzy around them. However, they were able to see when the Yondime Hokage, Minato Namikaze, and his wife, Kushina Uzumaki, resealed the Kyuubi into a newborn Naruto. Not only that, they looked around the area and was just able to make out the figure of another baby laying on an altar next to Naruto. The memory was still kind of blurry after what they saw about Kyuubi's human form, but they could tell that there was definitely another baby laying next to Naruto. Yet, Kyuubi's memories were focused on Naruto since he was being sealed inside of him. This raised many questions for Shikamaru and Kiba as they were ejected from the memory the same way they came. Once they were standing with Naruto in the hall of memories once more, they looked back at the blond in a new light. Naruto was standing there with his arms folded, his eyes closed, it was then that they noticed the similarities...Naruto looked a lot like Kyuubi's son.

 

"So, did you guys see it?" Naruto asked as he opened his eyes to look at them.

 

Kiba and Shikamaru shared a look, "uh, y-yeah, we did..." Shikamaru answered.

 

Naruto nodded, "good, now let's head back. I brought you here to meet Kyuubi, not look through my past," he grumbled tiredly.

 

"U-uhm..." Kiba started, Naruto looked back at him, "uh, n-nevermind..." he said, rethinking what he was about to say. The trio walked back down the path of memories, this time, they looked at all the silent memories that were playing as they walked. The sense of realization was hitting them like a tone of bricks. They passed a few memories were they, themselves, were either helping Naruto get into more trouble, or were not trying to defend him in any way. they felt guilty for not helping him from the start, now that they know what they know.

 

 **"Well, well, well, so you two were able to see the visions that I saw that night, weren't you?"** The Kyuubi stated as the trio exited the door leading to Naruto's memories. As they came out, Kiba and Shikamaru stared up in shock at seeing the giant fox with glowing red-orange fur, red eyes. His long ears that made him look sort of like a rabbit though. He had black marks around his eyes that extended up to his ears, his fangs bared as he smirked at the three boys. Behind him, his nine tails swayed lazily, looked at Naruto,  **"what do you think you were doing back that, brat? I told you not to look back at those memories, did I not?"**

 

Naruto shrugged his shoulder, "I was curious, is that wrong? They're my memories now too," he said uncaringly.

 

The Kyuubi shook his head before turning back to the two others with him. He looked them over for a second,  **"which one is your first mate?"**

 

"Kiba, he's the first one I slept with. I was going to make it Shikamaru, but he was more convenient at the time," Naruto explained.

 

"What? Excuse me?!" Kiba stated incredulously, breaking out of his shock first, as he stared at Naruto while his face was turning red.

 

 **"Hmm, and what about the other one? What are you planning to do with him now that you've shown him that I still breathe?"** Kyuubi asked as he looked over to Shikamaru.

 

Naruto glanced at Shikamaru, "he'll be my second mate," he stated as he looked back up at the caged fox.

 

"Who said that I was going to let you do whatever you did to Kiba, to do to me?" Shikamaru asked lazily.

 

Kyuubi looked between Shikamaru and Kiba, then laughed,  **"you've chosen well so far. I can sense some untapped strength and potential coming from both of them. I look forward to seeing how you move from here."** Naruto nodded,  **"hm, good, now leave, I have much to do."** Just like that, all three boys were ejected from Naruto's mind.

 

* * *

**Real world**

_Forest_  

 

"So, now that you two have seen the truth, what are your thoughts about me now?" Naruto asked as they opened their eyes after coming back to reality.

 

"That...that was all real, wasn't it?" Kiba asked, still in a state of disbelief, "the doors, the cage, the sewer, everything?"

 

"Yep, even the Kyuubi you saw, he was real too," Naruto stated casually as if talking about the weather. "Seeing as how your father was killed that night, does that mean that you hate me now?"

 

"Hate you...I-no," Kiba looked down at the ground, he wasn't sure of his feeling at the moment. Everything felt as if it was happening so fast. Ever since he could remember, his mother had told him that the Kyuubi was evil, that all foxes were meant to be hated, and that because of the Kyuubi, he had no father. He was also told to stay away from Naruto because he was 'a bad influence' to be around, at first, Kiba believed it because of all the pranks that the blond would do, be then he remembered. He thought back to when they used to play in the playground before they started to go to the academy... Before Naruto started to do pranks, he would always see people staying away from him, as if he had done something bad to everyone. He couldn't understand it at the time, so he just went with whatever his mother or big sister told him. Now that he saw those memories, how could he continue on the way he had? "I don't know."

 

"Hm, and what about you?" Naruto asked as he turned towards Shikamaru, "you've barely said anything on the situation since I brought you guys out here. Do you have something that you would like to say?"

 

"Who? Me? Not really," Shikamaru scratched the back of his head, "it's not like much has changed, we just learned that the thing that killed hundreds of people years ago is sealed inside your body. Not only that, but you were literally unable to do anything about it seeing as how you were a baby and all...what a drag." He sighed, he looked up to the sky, "I don't really know how others see it, but you're still you, Naruto."

 

Naruto gave a small smile at hearing that, "that's good to hear, Shika-chan!" He said as he walked over to Shikamaru.

 

"Huh? Hey, what do-" Shikamaru started before his lips were captured by Naruto's in a deeply passionate kiss. Kiba snapped out of his own thoughts at the sound of the commotion and was wide eye at what he saw.

 

When Naruto released the kiss, Shikamaru was blushing and out of breath. He smirked, "what? I like your expression, so I gave you a kiss for it. Is that wrong of me?" He asked as he pulled Shikamaru close with one hand while the other squeezed his butt.

 

"W-w-where do you think you're touching!" Shikamaru said in a bit of a panic as he felt the other boy squeezing his butt.

 

"Relax, Shika-chan, everything's going to be just fine," Naruto said as he moved his hands around his hips.

 

Shikamaru could feel the tugging at his pants and tried to stop him, "no, seriously, Naruto, can you just slow down a minute? what has gotten into today?!" He was getting pretty flustered by Naruto's seemingly random actions. He looked over to Kiba for help, only to find the blushing Inuzuka just staring at them as if frozen in time. "Kiba, Kiba! Don't just stand there! Do something, help me!" He yelled, hoping that Kiba would, in fact, help him as he wanted...But Kiba still stood there frozen as if he had just walked in on his parents doing something weird.

 

Naruto turned his attention on Kiba, remembering that he was still there, "yeah, Kiba, why don't you help me out? I mean, haven't you had a crush on this guy for a while now, right?"

 

Kiba blushed, "what! N-no I-" he started but was stopped by the sight of Naruto's smirk.

 

at the blond, wondering how he found out about his crush on the Nara. He knew that his mother would never allow it, not when he was just named the Inuzuka clan's heir after his sister turned it down last year.

 

"Aw, Kiba-chan, there's no need to lie to me. I've seen the looks you would send his way while he was sleeping." Naruto coo'd, even before you realized you had a crush on him, it showed. At least, it did to me."

 

Kiba's blush became more prominent as he tried to deny the claim again. "N-no, I-I'm not gay!" He shouted at the blond angrily, but on the inside, he didn't want Naruto to continue what he was doing. But at the same time, he wasn't supposed to like guys if he was going to be the next clan head, he would never be accepted by his other clan members if they found out. So, in that case, maybe he should let Naruto continue?

 

Naruto saw the conflict in Kiba's eyes and raised his eyebrows, "hm, if that's how you feel, then you wouldn't mind standing there and watching, right?" Shikamaru looked between Naruto and Kiba, not really believing that this was happening right now. It was almost as if this was someone's idea of a bad joke. But then again...why did having Naruto touch him like this stir something within him? He tried to ignore it, but he couldn't, with every passing second, the feeling continued to grow. Naruto Ignored Shikamaru's weak attempts at trying to stop his hands as he successfully pulled down Shikamaru's pants. He turned the Nara around and pressed him into a nearby tree before pressing his own body against the other boy's back. "Why don't you pay attention Kiba, I'm about to do to Shikamaru what I did to you," Naruto stated as he gave the Inuzuka a wink. Meanwhile, Kiba felt frozen in place, his cheeks burning red as he watched Naruto take Shikamaru's virginity. When he saw Naruto pull his half hard dick from his pants, Kiba's mind flashed back to their own time in the classroom and became hard himself. Kiba said nothing as he watched Naruto pull Shikamaru's underwear down with his pants, with the Nara's butt now on display, Kiba couldn't help but stare. Naruto looked down at it's round, firmness of Shikamaru's ass as he brought his fingers up to his mouth and started licking them.

 

At the same time, Shikamaru could feel his heart skip a beat.  _"What is he doing to me?"_   He thought to himself as he looked over to Kiba to see what he was doing and was surprised to see the blushing being turned on by this. He turned away from Kiba, having someone see him this way was embarrassing..so why was he getting turned on right now?  _"Why am I getting turned on by all of this?"_ He mused to himself just in time for Naruto push a now wet finger into the tight ring of muscle, Shikamaru's cheeks burned red, he closed his eyes.  _"This can't be real, there's no way! Naruto's interested in Sakura for all, not boys!"_

 

"I was never interested in Sakura," Naruto stated softly, just loud enough for the two boys to hear him.

 

Kiba seemed to remember where he was and quickly covered his growing hard-on. "W-wh-what? No way, then why have you been trying to get her to go out on a date with you for all these years?" He asked, trying to recover from his embarrassment.

 

Naruto chuckled as he pushed a second finger into Shikamaru's hole, "because, she seemed like an easy enough target. She used to be pretty, and she was smart, I thought if I went with a girl like that, maybe she could be the only one out of everyone in the village to accept me for who I am. That was before she started hitting me for every little thing she could think of, so then I decided to do it in order to annoy her."

 

"B-but w-why did-did you let her h-h-hit you s-so much?" Shikamaru stuttered under Naruto's ministrations, at first, it felt uncomfortable, but the pain was slowly turning into pleasure.

 

"To keep up my act." Naruto pressed another finger to boy's virgin hole, "try relaxing a little more, it'll hurt less," he advises. Naruto was really speaking from experience, after doing it with Kiba just a little over an hour or so ago, he could tell that this time was going to be more enjoyable. He also remembered his past experiences of being raped and how none of the other guys would wait for him to adjust or even prepare him like he was doing now for Shikamaru.

 

Shikamaru glanced back at Naruto, cheeks red, "h-how c-c-can I?!" He whined as Naruto wiggled said fingers, "s-st-stop d-doing that, i-it f-f-feels w-weird!"

 

Naruto removed his fingers, feeling like he's stretched him enough, "alright." He stated as he used his free hand to hold Shikamaru's hips in place, and aimed his member at Shikamaru's puckered hole. "Get ready," he smirked as he pushed into Shikamaru's heat.  _"Wow, this feels better than when I did it with Kiba..."_ An involuntary moan left Shikamaru's lips as Naruto entered him. It hurt...but it also felt kind of good. He didn't know why, though. His knees felt weak as Naruto filled him. Naruto could feel when Shikamaru was about to fell so he pinned him to the tree. Shikamaru pressed his hands into the tree in front of him so he didn't have to be pressed so firmly against it, he glanced back at Naruto. But he didn't expect him to be so close, their faces were only inches apart. Naruto starts moving in a slow but steady rhythm, just like he did with Kiba. Pulled out and pushed back in just as slowly. He repeated the action until he felt Shikamaru's body start to get used to the movement. In no time at all, the sound of skin hitting skin was heard all around them, filling the air along with heavy breathing and the occasional moans. Distantly, Naruto heard something fall to the ground and turned his attention back onto Kiba who was now unable to restrain himself any longer. Naruto's smirk grew into a grin as he created a single shadow clone to go over to the other boy on the floor. The clone appeared behind Kiba and quickly grabbed his hands, pulling them away from his pants so he couldn't jerk off, yet. Kiba was started for a moment when he realized that he had been caught red-handed. When he realized that it was Naruto, he looked into the clones eyes, waiting to see what it would do, he whispered something into Kiba's ear that had him turn back to Naruto and Shikamaru. A look of anticipation in his eyes. Meanwhile, Naruto felt when Shikamaru's body started to tighten again, this time it wasn't from discomfort, he reached around to Shikamaru's smaller dicker. He wrapped his hand around it firmly and started pumping it, the beat was a little off from the one he was using to thrust into him, but it didn't matter, it still earned a surprised moan. After only a few seconds of pumping, Naruto hand was coated in cum. After Shikamaru's orgasm, Naruto could feel himself getting closer. He stepped back from Shikamaru, pulling them both away from the tree, and in one fluid motion, he had Shikamaru pressed firmly to his body as he pushed back into him and started pumping his dick again. Shikamaru moaned tiredly as Naruto used his free arm to hold him in place as he continued to thrust into his body even harder than before. The new angle was bringing new pleasures and Shikamaru's dick was standing at attention once more.  

 

 When Naruto felt Shikamaru get close again, he managed to turn their position around so that they were both now facing Kiba. Shikamaru was so deep in pleasure that he didn't realize what was happening as he tightened up again and came, spreading his seed all over Kiba's surprised, blushing face. With a few more thrust, Naruto exploded inside of Shikamaru body from the sight. He filled Shikamaru up to th point that his sperm was starting to slowly leak out. The sensation of being filled made Shikamaru's body get excited again, but he was much too tired to go for another round so soon. By this point, Shikamaru didn't have enough strength to stand on his own two feet anymore as was just letting Naruto hold him in his arms. Naruto looked over to Kiba and his clone, he nodded his head to the clone to let Kiba go, the clone obeyed and dispelled itself. Now free, Kiba looked up at the tired Nara in the blonde's arms, he slowly crawled over to Shikamaru, his face was covered in his cum. His eyes went down to Shikamaru's limp dick, he licked his lips as he acted on impulse and latched his lips on the limp member and started sucking it like no tomorrow.

 

But he wanted more than that.

 

After what he just watched, he wanted a lot more.

 

And Naruto knew this.  

 

Shikamaru slowly recovered from his second orgasm. He slowly remembered where he was and what had just happened. He still couldn't believe it. Looking down, his eyes registered Kiba's cum covered face as he sucked on his dick. He sighed,  _"troublesome,"_ he thought as he weakly lifted his hand and placed it on Kiba's head. Kiba looked up to him, his dick still in his mouth, the sight was making him horny again, but he was much too tired to actually do anything about it. Two orgasms in a row seem to do that to first timers, as Naruto later realized. 

 

"Kiba, what don't you let Shikamaru rest a bit," Naruto commented as he slid his dick out of Shikamaru's ass. Kiba had a look on his face that said he was going to complain, but Naruto cut him off before he could start. "Instead, why don't you clean me off?" He asked as he slowly lowered Shikamaru on the ground so that he could lay down in the grass while Naruto sat down next to him as he leaned against the tree he was just pressing Shikamaru on. Kiba looked away from Naruto's large dick for a moment as Shikamaru allowed himself to lay next to Naruto. He looked between Naruto and Kiba for a few seconds before turning his eyes up to the sky, but soon enough, his eyes closed and he fell asleep with after-sex-glow. Kiba huffed a sigh and stood up, Naruto watched him, wondering what he was going to do next, he wasn't very surprised when he pulled his pants down with his boxers, tossing both aside before climbing onto Naruto's lap. "Oh, so you want another round?"

 

Kiba didn't look at Naruto as he replied, "isn't it fair?" He asked, "you made Shikamaru cum twice," he pouted.

 

Naruto chuckled lightly, "that I did." He pulled Kiba close and reached out to press a finger to his puckered hole, "and you're still stretched from earlier, good." He lifted Kiba's hips a little and pressed his wed dick inside, sliding in with ease. He eased Kiba's hips down on until he was fully seated, the boy moaned as he was filled with Naruto.

 

"W-what's g-going o-on h-here!" Both boys stopped what they were doing and looked to the owner of the voice to see Hinata Hyuuga. The timid Hyuuga was standing half a yeard away from the three boys. Her face was flushed as she looked at the three boys, "w-w-what are y-you g-guys doing?"

 

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Hinata, you've liked me for a long time, haven't you?" The way that Hinata's eyes widen told Naruto everything he needed to know. "Well, I can only imagine of betrayed you are feeling right now, so I'll let you this chance to make a choice right now. You can either walk away right now and forget what you saw here and try to move on with your life by finding another crush. Or, you can stay and fulfill your dream of being with your crush by accepting my offer. Which will you chose?" 

 

"W-wha?" Hinata asked as she looked at him as if he had just found out her best-kept secret.

 

Naruto chuckled, "what? Did you really think that I didn't know about your crush on me? But don't worry, I'm not making this offer to make you keep your mouth shut. I have other reason better than that," he stated as he started to move Kiba's his up and down slowly.

 

"W-what k-kind of d-deal i-is that?" Kiba asked.

 

"It's only an offer that she could choose to either accept or decline. It's entirely up to her though, but if she were to accept my offer, then we could win just more than just my heart and simple friendship." Naruto said, "but she will have to make the choice for herself, I can not force her to choose just because I would like her to do it herself."

 

Kiba was suspicious about Naruto's motives, but could no longer think straight after Naruto started moving his own hips along with Kibas. Meanwhile, Hinata had to look away from the two boys, she couldn't believe that she came out here to sp-check on Naruto, only to find him in this situation. She felt a little heartbroken by it, but what surprised her more was the fact that he knew that she liked him. And then he gave her a choice to either stand there and hear him out, or turn away and forget all about her feelings. The feelings that she kept bottled up inside of her for years and year ever since he saved her from her bullies a week before they entered the academy. Logically, the better thing to do might probably be to forget all about what she saw, forget about her feelings for Naruto, and focus herself on the things that truly mattered. Becoming a strong ninja and taking over her clan so she could free the branch members from their cursed life...but, then again. How could she possibly forget all about these feelings she's had for so long? How could she pretend that she no longer liked the boy that she had slowly fallen in love with over the years? The boy that, even though he wasn't the top of the class and played around, the boy that always seemed to be missing the important lessons the academy had to offer, was now sitting only a few feet away from her. Wearing a leaf headband, signifying that, despite the odds against him, still managed to graduate. It was sort of inspiring really. She couldn't possibly walk away from a person so strong, even if she couldn't one day hope to be his wife, she could at least be his friend. That way, she would still get to be close to him, even though it might hurt to see him with Kiba or Shikamaru, or whatever guy he chose to be with. She wanted to be with Naruto, the strongest guy she knows, as far as she is concerned.

 

"U-u-uhm, I-I-I'll h-hear w-wh-what you h-have t-to say..." Hinata stuttered.

 

"I see," Naruto said as he kept moving Kiba's hips with his. He could feel that the Inuzuka was already getting close to the edge, he wasn't going to last much longer. In that case, Naruto decided to finish this up quickly so he could talk to Hinata properly. He pulled Kiba close so that he was leaning on his chest, Kiba wrapped his arms around Naruto's neck as the blond reached between them and started stroking Kiba's leaking dick. "Since you've chosen to stay and listen, I must warn you that anything that is said between us here must be kept between the four of us, got it?"

 

Hinata nodded her head, still not looking at Naruto, "y-y-yes."

 

Naruto grinned as he pumped Kiba's dick faster, Kiba pushed his head into the crook of Naruto's neck to muffle the moans that were being forced out of his throat. Two more strokes had him exploding all over Naruto's hand. When he came down from his high, he slumped against Naruto's shoulders, his eyes were half closed as he slowly starting to drift off to sleep, just like Shikamaru. When Naruto felt Kiba relax his muscles, he created a clone, it nodded at its creator as it gently lifted Kiba off of Naruto and laid him on the grass next to Shikamaru. The Inuzuki didn't struggle, he only whined at the loss of contact with the blond before he gave up and curled up into a ball next to the sleeping Nara. Meanwhile, Naruto was able to put his dick back into his pants as he pulled them up, when he was decent he let out a deep breath and stretched his muscles, he looked up at the sky to see how clear and stunningly blue it was. He sighed,  _"if Hinata's here, then that means that everyone's done with the last part of that stupid test. I better hurry up before people start wondering where they are,"_ Naruto frowned at his thoughts and turned back to Hinata. "Hinata, what I'm about to tell you is top secret, no one in our generation besides Shikamaru and Kiba knows about it. The only reason I'm going to share it with you is that I know that you will take the time to look 'underneath the underneath' like what those hypocrites in the academy have been trying to teach all this time. Understand?"

 

Hinata looked back to Naruto, noting the commanding tone in his voice. The way he was standing, feet planted firm, shoulders squared, and head held up high. This was the look of a leader getting ready to lead his troops into war... _"this Naruto...is different from before..."_ she thought to herself as she listened to what he had to say.  After five minutes of explaining about the Kyuubi and how it came to be sealed inside of him by the Fourth, Hinata felt as if all the pieces of a puzzle were starting to fell into place. She had noted the many glares tossed his way whenever he was simply walking down the street at any time. From dusk to dawn, the villagers would always glare at him, even when they were happily laughing and telling jokes seconds before, they would stop to only glare at him. "T-th-that's h-horrible!" She said with tears in her eyes as she learned about his treatment from the villagers, the treatment that was not shown to the younger generation in broad daylight. He told her about the beatings, the harsh comments, and the sabotage of his grades, but that was it, he would not want to taint his mates with the knowledge of what else their parents were willing to do to a child that was around the same age as their own.

 

Naruto nodded, "yes, but enough about that. What I really want to tell you about is what I plan to do about their baseless hatred. Seeing as how you are the heir to a major clan, I would like you help as well, will you help me?"

 

"B-but w-what c-c-can I d-do? I-I-I'm not-" Hinata started, but Naruto cut her off.

 

"You are strong, it's just that you haven't been given the right tools to help you realize that yet. But I can help," Naruto stated confidently.

 

"H-how?" Hinata asked as she wiped away the tears still in her eyes.

 

"By training you, of course." Naruto replied, "I can't have my mates unable to fend for themselves. Starting today, you, Shikamaru, and Kiba will not just be my Mates, but also my apprentices."

 

"M-m-m-mates?!" Hinata's face turned a bright red at the mention of that world.

 

Naruto nodded again, "yep, I've gotta keep you guys close or else the villagers will try something to either hurt you to get to me, or somehow get you to hurt me yourselves. I can't allow that to happen, so I'm going to tell you guys everything about me so that there isn't anything the villagers can tell you to turn on me later. Besides, once you get to know me, I'm sure you all will be able to tell fact from fiction without even questioning it." He took a step closer to Hinata, but didn't get too close in hopes that she doesn't faint from the action, "so what do ya say? You wanna help this monster find a little hope in the world?" He asked with a soft smile aimed at the Hyuuga princess.

 

Hinata, for her part, was already close to fainting when Naruto smiled at her. She looked at his outstretched hand then back at him before slowly, hesitantly, taking his hand and shaking it. "Y-y-yes, I-I wi-will he-help y-you," she said softly.

 

Naruto's smile brightened, "great, I'm counting on you, Hina-chan!" Hinata's face turned into a color that was redder than a tomato, if possible, freezing up like a statue and then fell to the ground on her side. The sound of stone cracking was heard, when Naruto looked down at the Hinata statue, he found that she had been broken into a thousand pieces. Naruto sweatdropped, "woah, I didn't think that was possible...is this a jutsu I've never heard about or something? It's incredible," he commented as he looked at the piece for a second, he sighed, "well, I guess I better wake Shikamaru and Kiba before their parents come looking for them if they aren't already." With that, he looked back at his clone that had already re-dressed both boys and was now waiting for further orders, "wake them up," the clone nodded at its master's command.

 

A deep chuckling was heard from the back of Naruto's mind,  **"so you're taking the Hyuuga gurl as another one of your mates as well? That's a little surprising considering that you've never really shown any real feelings to the female gender before, besides the Haruno banshee. Although that was only to annoy her, it was never out of actual love or like, was it?"**

 

 _"No, I could never love that bitch. Just the sight of her pain hair and giant forehead makes me ill. Hearing her voice alone is a major source of most of my headaches up until now. No, Hinata is much more pleasant to deal with, in fact, I think I might make her pregnant soon,"_ Naruto chuckled to himself lightly.  _"Actually, I think I should wait until after Kiba gets pregnant so that they are not all giving birth at the same time."_

 

 **"Even though you say that, you know you must mark all your mates first before you can impregnate them. The mark will show that they belong to you and only you. No one else may touch them as long as you live."** Kyuubi reminded,  **"it is also this mark that allows you to access not only their bloodlines but also their thoughts and emotions."**

 

Naruto was quiet for a while, thinking about the future and what it might hold. He smirked,  _"that could be very useful towards my plans."_

 

 

**_To be continued..._ **

 


	4. No longer dancing

_**Previously** _

_Naruto finally graduates from the academy but at the cost of suspicion from both his senseis. After leaving the testing room, Naruto finds himself walking into the forest behind the academy to talk to Shikamaru and Kiba. He shows them a great secret that they must keep to themselves. After seeing the memories of the one being that caused their village so much pain twelve years ago, Shikamaru and Kiba come to realize what the villagers have been doing to Naruto for the entirety of his life. Soon after, they learn the truth that was hidden from them. Coming back from their encounter, Shikamaru quickly finds himself in Naruto's embarrass while Kiba is forced to watch from the sidelines. When the two finish, Kiba takes the opportunity to embarrass Naruto next, but they were interrupted by a one Hinata Hyuuga when she comes to tell them something...only to find the crush of her lives being straddled by Kiba. Naruto then gives Hinata the choice to either walk away or stay, and of course, she chose to stay. Unwilling to give up on her heart just yet, she decides to hear Naruto out. She is soon surprised to find out that not only will her longtime crush be taking on the village, but needs her help, along with some others, to do so. Naruto then takes it upon himself to let her know that she will be one of the chosen few that will be learning from Naruto so she may always be able to see 'underneath the underneath'. The question is, how will these actions affect their future in the village?_

 

* * *

  **Now**

_Hokage Tower_

 

Iruka stands before Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Sandime Hokage, after reporting on what happened in the testing room. Hiruzen sat behind his desk with a thoughtful expression on his face. He was frowning as he thought,  _"this could be bad. If the council finds out about Naruto knowing about the Kyuubi sealed inside of him, then things could get ugly really fast. Not only that, there will most likely be some major finger pointing from Donzo, this just might be a key point for him to make so he could have a play for the hat, but I can't allow that to happen. Who knows the kind of damage that man will do if he's allowed control of the whole village. No, I can't let it get to that point, so then...it looks like I'll have to use Naruto to settle things. But how? It's more than likely that Naruto's treatment in the village was less than fair. If I were him, I might have already been planning my escape ever since I could first walk. Not only that, but how did he find out? Was it a village? I wouldn't put it past them to just blurt it out in anger, then again, it could have been the Kyuubi himself that got in contact with his own container. If that's the case, that leads into whole other set of variables. The Kyuubi was a tool in the attack that night, I know that much for sure thanks to Kushina who still had a slight connection with the fox after it was ripped out of her seal all those years ago. It's amazing that she didn't die right away. Hm..."_ Hiruzen's eyes turned on Iruka's figure, the chunin was waiting patiently for his response.  _"We can't allow the Kyuubi to leave the village, we need it's power for the future, although, I would be all to happy to let Naruto run free after all we've put him through. Not to mention the pain that was yet to come..."_

 

Hiruzen stood up from his chair and walked over to the window to look over his village. He was sorely disappointed in the villager's actions over the years, but with the council being made up of important figures of and to the village, he couldn't overrule them on too many things concerning the boy's status. He sighed deeply, tiredly. "Iruka, would you like to know why Naruto has not been killed after so many villagers have wished for his death?" He asked seriously, catching the chunin off guard.

 

"Uh, I-" Iruka started, not really prepared for the question, but Hiruzen didn't bother to let him finish his thoughts, let alone gather them.

 

"It's because the village needs the Kyuubi." Hiruzen turned around to face Iruka, a serious look on his face, "Iruka, imagine, if you will, both the forces of Kumo and Iwa gathering together to fight us in an all-out war. Imagine if both villages, along with their own jinchuriki, both villages having two each, knocking on our front door, armed to the teeth for a fight."

 

Iruka imagined the thought of both Iwa and Kumo waging war against Konoha. He didn't really like the odds of that seeing as how both villages had something major to gain from their defeat. Iwa would be getting back at Minato for the third war and Kumo would be getting a Hyuuga, both villages would cause some damage to theirs alone, but together? It would be better if they committed suicide right here and now. "I don't think I can imagine us surviving very long, Hokage-sama..." Iruka stated solemnly,  _"especially if their jinchuriki are involved..."_

 

Hiruzen nodded, expecting this answer, then he went on. "Now, imagine, if you would, the Kyuubi container joining in on the fight. A fully trained jinchuriki that was trained by the best senseis he could find...what do you think our odds would be then?"

 

Iruka paled a little at that thought, "not good, sir," he said as he looked into his kage's eyes. _"And that's one of the reasons why we've all tried to keep him weak over the years, so something like that wouldn't happen,"_ his fist tightened with that thought.

 

Hiruzen watched Iruka's reactions carefully, he could just feel the hatred rolling off of the young man from where he stood. No doubt all of it was directed at a certain blond. Hiruzen chuckled lightly, "well then, it's a good thing that Naruto was able to find some kind of anchor to keep him loyal to the village so something like that wouldn't happen."

 

"Sir?" Iruka asked, suddenly lost with the aged man's worlds.

 

"Don't give me that look, Iruka, you know exactly what I'm talking. I mean, why else are you staying loyal to the village? Because you have someone or something that is keeping you loyal. Whatever it is, it doesn't matter, as long as you have something that you want to protect, then you will want to stay in the village to protect it, am I right?"

 

Iruka suddenly remembered that special something that was keeping him loyal to the village. He grew a smile on his face, "yes, sir."

 

Hiruzen nodded once more, "so then it's the same for Naruto, am I right?"

 

Iruka lost his smile just as quickly as it came, "I-I uhm, I'm sorry Hokage-sama, but I'm not sure I follow."

 

"You don't follow?" The Sandime asked, faking confusion of his own, "hm, that's odd, I thought it would be clear, I suppose not then." He turned away from the chunin to stare out of the window again, "think about this, Iruka, if Naruto does, in fact, knows about the Kyuubi sealed inside of him, and then is able to talk to the fox for an unknown amount of time...what do you think the first thing will be on both of their collective minds right now?" An air of silence stretched on in the office for a while before Hiruzen shook his head slowly, "revenge. They say it's a dish best served cold, but with the Kyuubi involved, things just might get heated just right. If Naruto Uzumaki doesn't have anyone or anything inside the village that he could ever hope to hold dear and protect with his own two hands, then who's to say that he won't find such things outside the village? So that is why I have decided to give you this mission, Iruka. I want you to befriend Naruto Uzumaki and make sure that he stays loyal to the village. Befriend him in any way you can, and if you can, then find a way for him to anchor himself to our village willingly."

 

Iruka stayed silent for a few moments before he asked, "and if I can't do either of those things?"

 

Hiruzen turned his head to a spot in his office that he's come to find himself looking at more often than not these days. It was the wall with a line of pictures on it, four in total. He was looking at the last one in particular. The fourth Hokage, the Yellow flash Minato Namikaze, his blue eyes seemingly staring deep into his very soul as he spoke. "Then may Kami-sama have mercy on us all."

 

* * *

**With Naruto**

 

Naruto was thinking to himself when he heard the sound of someone regaining consciousness. He looked over to see Hinata starting to wake up from her earlier fainting spell. He looked over to the sleepy Kiba and Shikamaru, "good, it looks like everyone awake now, that means that we can talk." Naruto said with a bit of a yawn, after all the activity today, he was starting to get a little tired from it all. Who knew interacting with others were so draining?

 

"Hm? Naruto, what do you wanna talk about?" Asked a sleepy Kiba.

 

"I'm glad you asked, Kiba-chan, well, you see, seeing as how all three of you are here. I've decided that I will make all of you my mates," Naruto explained simply as if he were talking about the weather. He heard the Kyuubi chuckle in the back of his mind but didn't question it much.

 

"You're what?" Shikamaru asked, a little confused in his sleepy state after his short nap.

 

"S-s-so y-you w-wh-where s-serious a-about th-that," Hinata stuttered as she sat up while looking at her hands in her lap. Her chest felt a little tight as she heard that.

 

"Huh? Hinata, when did you get here?" Shikamaru asked since he fell asleep before her arrival.

 

"That doesn't matter now, what does matter is that I need to start training all of you so you can be stronger for the future." Naruto stated before Hinata could answer, "we can probably start tomorrow around six in the morning."

 

"Six?! Don't you think that's a bit early?" Kiba whined with Shikamaru agreeing with him, Hinata didn't say anything as she just stared down into her lap.

 

"Not if you're serious about being ninjas now that we've graduated." Naruto commented, "besides, you can think of this as a good way to train yourself for the early and late hours we may have to work in the future as bodyguards for someone important. As far as I know, ninjas don't really get much sleep once they're on the job, at least not like what we're used to anyway." 

 

"H-h-he h-has a  p-point," Hinata said softly.

 

"So wait a minute Naruto," Shikamaru asked, "why are you making this deal with the three of us? What's it for you and what makes you think that you have anything you can train us in that our clan can't?" He asked curiously of the blond.

 

"Mhmm, I can understand your skepticism, but there's really nothing to worry about. I can assure you that I have a lot that I can teach, you just have to show up to learn it," the blond shrugged his shoulders casually.

 

"Wait, wait, wait," Kiba waved his hands in front of him as if to stop everything from happening so fast. "First off, why are you saying all this? It's not like you've got any real power behind you or anything, you don't even have a clan! Second, mates? Uh, the last time I checked, Shikamaru and I are guys and so are you, the only mate you can really have is Hinata..." he went on without thinking too hard on what he was saying or how Hinata seemed to be feeling about all of this. Because of his lack of observation, he missed Hinata's flinch and the way her cheeks tinted red at his words. Yet, Kiba was unfazed, "also, third, uh...why do you think we would even be your mates anyways?!" He stated with an air of finality added to his voice as he folded his arms in front of himself.

 

"Well, then, Kiba, as I said before, you'll just have to show up tomorrow at six to find all that out since I don't really have much time to talk about this today." Naruto answered with a sigh, "not to mention that I have some things to fill Hinata in on tomorrow too," the blond frowned as he looked at each new genin individually. He shook his head, "on top of that, you guys have to get back to your families soon before they start coming to look for you. Which reminds me," he looked at Hinata, who flinched when she felt his eyes on her, "when is team placements? We left before we could hear."

 

"O-oh, i-i-its n-next w-w-week," Hinata stuttered softly as she tried to look anywhere but at her blond crush.

 

"Good, that should give us enough time to get the basics down," Naruto stated as he got to his feet.

 

Kiba rolled his eyes, not really able to see much of the changed that had occurred in Naruto, "so then, what are you going to be training us in?"

 

Naruto smirked, "that will be a secret for now."

 

"Seriously?" The Inuzuka asked.

 

The two boys and girl stayed silent for a moment, "w-why are y-you doing this, N-Naruto?" Hinata asked, her curiosity was getting too much for her, she wanted to know why Naruto would wast his time with the 'weak Hyuuga Princess'. 

 

Naruto sensed her thoughts and nodded, he looked at all three of them as he answers, "because I see potential in you. In all of you. That is why I am going to teach you things that your sense would rather you not learn. I also want to make sure that you can all reach your full potential to help me reach my own goals."

 

"Troublesome," Shikamaru sighed, "and what are your goals?" He asked in his usual lazy drawl.

 

"That is also a secret," Naruto smiled, giving them a small wink at the end. "Oh, and try not to tell your parents that you're going to be hanging around me if they ask. That's another reason why I want to be training you three starting tomorrow. It'll be more trouble to tell, than not, so this meeting stays between us, okay?" He asked with a bright smile, he was starting to get a little excited about tomorrow. "We'll meet up tomorrow morning at ground forty-four."

 

Kiba looked at both Hinata and Shikamaru, he would have asked why they couldn't tell their parents if it wasn't for the fact that he already knew the reason why. The same went for Shikamaru, he knew that there were more than just a few members of his clan that disliked Naruto as much as the villagers seemed to. His parents included. He didn't know why before, but now he did and he was a little disappointed in his parents for acting that way. As for Hinata, Naruto didn't really need to tell her not to say anything about their meeting, for as long as she could remember, everyone from her clan had been telling her to stay as far away from Naruto Uzumaki as she could. It saddened her to think that she would have to lie to her family about her whereabouts as long as Naruto was involved in them. But since she was a ninja now, she had to get used to the fact that there were some things she had to keep from her loved ones now.

 

"Right, I guess we'll meet tomorrow," Shikamaru sigh.

 

"B-but, i-isn't th-that p-place f-f-forb-biden..." Hinata stuttered as she had heard stories about that particular training ground.

 

"Yeah," Kiba said with a bit of a frown, "are you trying to get us in trouble or something?" 

 

"Not at all, just make sure to not be followed and I'll show you how great that place can be." Naruto cheered, "after all, it's where I've been living for the past two months now I'm still perfectly fine!" He chuckled as he turned away from them, "well, see ya," with that, he jumped up into the trees and started hopping away via tree branches. When they could no longer see the brightness of his blond hair, the trio was left staring after him for a moment longer before Shikamaru decided to get up.

 

"This might be interesting to watch," Shikamaru shrugged his shoulders as he put his hands in his pocket. He was about to walk away when a thought popped into his mind, "hey, Hinata, let me ask you something. Naruto, what do you think of the guy?"

 

"Huh? N-Naruto? Oh, w-we-well, h-he seems k-kind enough a-an-and h-he-he's ve-very ch-cheerful...Uhm, w-what about y-you?" Hinata stuttered a little as she pocked her index fingers together as she looked down into the glass.

 

"Me? I guess I don't really have much more of an opinion than what I've seen over the years." Shikamaru replied before turning to Kiba as the other boy made it to his feet, "what about you, Kiba?"

 

"What I think of the guy? Uh, not much, I guess, he's okay." Kiba said as he clasped his hands behind his back.

 

"Hm," Shikamaru nodded his head towards the school, "we should get back." 

 

As the trio made it back into the academy and towards the front, they were met with three people. The first was Kiba's mom, the current head of the Inuzuka clan, Tsume Inuzuka. She had an angry look on her face as she spotted her son making her way over to them, she had been waiting for her son to come out of the building with the other children, but he didn't. Now, most of the other parents that came to pick of their child were already leaving the area, she matched right up to Kiba and pinched his ear for a second before pulling at it. Kiba let out a yelp as the pain from his ear burned when his mother finally let go of his poor ears, "what kept you so long, Kiba? Do you know how long I've been waiting here to see if your ass passed or not?!" He asked sternly with her arms folded in front of her as she glared at her son.

 

"Owww, sorry, Ma, you didn't need to pull my ear off for that!" Kiba grumbled, "and I did pass, see!" He said as he pointed his thumb at his headband on his head.

 

Tsume smirked proudly at her son, "great, now that dinner I was planning won't go to wast! Come on, let's get back and show Hana, I'm sure she's just dying to know how you did." She stated happily as she wrapped an arm around her son's neck and pulled him alone with her towards the gate.

 

"Hey, I can walk on my own, Ma!" Kiba complained as he allowed himself to be dragged away by the woman, he turned to his friends and waved to them, "bye guys, see you later!"

 

"What a drag, I'm really tired now," Shikamaru complained as he walked over to his dad as he finished waving goodbye to Kiba.

 

"How come? Were this year's test hard on you or something?" Shikaku, Shikamaru's dad, and head of the Nara clan asked

 

"No, but it was troublesome to stay awake through all of it," Shikamaru replied with a yawn.

 

Shikaku chuckled, "you are my son, come on, your mom is making dinner, let's hurry."

 

"Kay, bye Hinata," Shikamaru said with a lazy wave goodbye to the Hyuuga.

 

"Bye..." Hinata waved to the retreating Nara's before frowning. Her attention turned to the branch member that was sent to fetch her. She never expected her dad to bother coming to school to get her himself even if she was graduating today. In some ways, she wished her family could be more lively and, well...warm like the Inuzuka's or the Nara's, but the Hyuuga clan would never lower themselves to mess around like those clans. Especially her father who was probably busy training her little sister to try and take her spot as clan heir in the future. She knew that this was her father's plan for about a year now, but there was nothing that she could really do about it other than accept it when it happens. Without turning to face the branch member, she started walking towards the gates, since said branch members was her cousin Neji and he did not bother to give her any greeting or any kind and was already halfway to the gate already. Hinata followed behind him, he head down as she walked, as per usual.

 

* * *

  **Later that night**

 

Shikamaru was just about to fall asleep in his bed after his mother beat him over the head to woke him up from his nap downstairs on the couch after dinner. It wasn't an unusual wake-up call from her, she did it to his dad quite a lot. But after his little brother, Shikajin was born a few years ago, her efforts with the 'Wake up Frying Pan' technique seemed to increase quite a bit. The young Nara heir sighed as he sat up in bed when he heard a third object of unknown origins hit his window with enough force that he actually thought it would have broke if it was normal glass. Thankfully, every clan hours in the village was made with a reinforced glass-like material called Chuzen, after the creator, aka ninja glass. Shikamaru looked over to the window just in time to see a small stone land on it, from the trajectory of the stone's path, he guessed that the person was aiming from the ground in front of his window. With another sigh, Shikamaru decided that he would give this stone throwing felon a piece of his mind...that is until he realized that it was actually Naruto that was standing at the starting point of the thrown stones path. At twelve p.m. at night...in this case, the young Nara decided to open his window to straight up cuss his ass out for waking him up. "Naruto, what the fuck!" He hissed at the blond who was just about to aim another stone at his window.

 

"Oh, hey, Shika-chan! Finally, you're away, I thought I would have to break your window in order to get your attention." Naruto said as he let the rock in his hand go, "where you asleep just now?"

 

Shikamaru felt his eye twitch, "I was until you started pelting things at my window! What are you even doing here? Don't you know that it's late?"

 

"It is?" Naruto asked as he looked up at the sky, "oh...can you let me then?"

 

Shikamaru's eye twitched again, "no, I can't let you in. It's late, my parents are sleeping!" 

 

"So?"

 

"So? So, I can't let you in and have you make a lot of noise to wake everyone up! What are you even doing here?" Shikamaru asked, starting to lose his patience with the blond boy

 

"I wanted to see you, Shika-chan, let me in," Naruto said giving him the puppy eyes. However, due to the distance and the darkness surrounding them, it had no effect.

 

"Hmm...no! Now leave!" Shikamaru hissed and was about to close his window when Naruto said something that made him stop.

 

"Fine, then I'll just bang on your front door until someone lets me!" Naruto stated and took a step towards the front of the hours, only for Shikamaru to stop him.

 

"No! Ugh, fine, you can come inside," Shikamaru groaned.

 

Naruto smirked, knowing full well that this would be the end result. He walked up to the side wall of the Nara house and then walked straight up the wall without his hands. Shikamaru was kind of amazed as he made it up to his window without hesitation. "Oh, by the way, that's what she said," the jinchuriki chuckled as he hopped into the bedroom.

 

Shikamaru rolled his eyes, "very mature of you, Naruto," he said as he closed his window. "Now what do you really want?" He asked as he turned around to face the blond as he sat on his bed, waiting to hear the reason why he had to wake up from his precious sleep to let the blond into his room. Especially at this hour.

 

"This," Naruto suddenly pushed Shikamaru down onto his bed and attacked his lips. Pushing up Shikamaru's fishnet shirt with one hand, he pulled down the boy's pants with the other as they kissed. When Shikamaru's member was freed, he started stroking it slowly as his lips moved down to his neck. Shika couldn't help the low moan that escaped his lips as his body remembered the pleasures that Naruto put him through earlier that day.

 

"Nngh, Naruto...again?" Was all Shikamaru's mind could formulate at the moment, he didn't think he could expend so much energy like before. But Naruto was going to stop as soon as he started.

 

Naruto hugged Shika's tired body close to him, grinding their bodies against each other as Shika body started to heat up in excitement. "Don't worry, Shika-chan, I won't force you to do much more, I just needed you to get all hot for me."

 

Shikamaru frowned as he cracked open one eye to look at the shadowed face of the blond. "Too tired...for this..." He moaned softly before closing his eyes again when a burst of pleasure shot through his lower back.

 

Naruto chuckled lowly, "that's fine, you can just lay there. You don't really need to do anything, I'll take care of the rest," he replied in his ear. Naruto's hand started pumping Shika faster, as he did that, his mouth found Shikamaru's neck again. He took a second before opening his mouth and then bitting down into to the soft, delicate flesh, Shika gasped at the pain as Naruto's teeth dug in deep.

 

"W-wh-what th-the hell Naruto? Did I just let you into my room so you can eat me or something?" Shikamaru complained as he tried to push the blond off of him, but Naruto wasn't moving. He knew that if he yelled or made too loud a sound, that his parents would surely come and think that Naruto was attacking him, which, in his opinion, might be what he would think too if he saw someone doing this to another person. His only option was to stay quite as Naruto sunk his teeth into his muscles, but that task was proving difficult as a hot burning sensation was starting to come from the spot Naruto bit into. At first, Shikamaru thought that this would be normal considering that Naruto's teeth felt quite sharp on the side of his neck, but the burning sensation was slowly growing, becoming more painful as time passed. The pain was also starting to spread outward, going from his neck to his shoulders, chest, arms, abdomen, and then down to his legs and feet. Meanwhile, his head felt as if it was about to explode, he felt like his body was on fire while his head was being crushed. It was unlike anything he's ever felt before, it hurt so much, he wanted it to stop, but Naruto wasn' listening to his whimpered, please. The pain so turned into white-hot agony all over his body and he couldn't take it any longer, he opened up his mouth to scream, but soon found that no sound was coming out because his mouth was covered. He opened his eyes to see Naruto staring down at him, his eyes were no longer blue, they were glowing an eerie red color that made Shika start to fear for his life. The way those eyes seem to look at him as if he were prey under the eyes of a beast, he wanted to close his eyes, he didn't want to see Naruto with that look in his eyes, not after...Not after they had sex hours ago. His first time and it was with a guy, he didn't know how he felt about that. It was like he wanted more, but at the same time, he was afraid to ask for it. Now that he was looking at this Naruto with red eyes, his fear was slowly mixing with curiosity, why was he looking at him this way? What were his plans? What did he want to do with him after he's done? More and more questions filled his mind, the more he wondered, the more he started to want to answer those questions. Before he knew what was what, the pain he had felt before was leaving him.

 

Naruto looked deeply into Shikamaru's eyes after he detached his lips from the boy's neck. What he had just done was mark this boy as one of his mates, his first mate. He was going to mark Kiba as his first, but after the Kyuubi told him that the first mate was the one that would have to be in charge of his other mates while he was away, he decided against it. He wanted to make sure that his future mates were well taken care of, he had to make the decision of brains over brands, and while Shika wasn't very brainy, he did have a lot of brains, he was just hiding it. That would soon change though because tomorrow they started training. While the effects of Naruto's marking took effect, Naruto freed his own dick from his pants and positioned it at Shika's entrance. His member was already hard and Shikamaru's body was already giving him access, even though it was subconsciously, he pushed into the warm heat that formed around his dick perfectly. He slowly started moving in and out, feeling the muscles contract and relax with every thrust, he speeds up with a steady rather, soon he was slamming himself into the Nara without mercy. Shikamaru groaned as he felt his dick become fully hard once more, "Naruto..." He sighed out as he felt his body heat up again, but this time, it wasn't painful. He allowed Naruto to do what he wanted, at the back of his mind, he knew that once they were done, he would get the answers he sought.

 

Naruto plowed into Shikamaru like there was no tomorrow, the bed creaked and groaned with every thrust, with the force of his movements, he was curious to see if the bed would break. He would test that theory another time since he could feel that they were both getting close to orgasm. Naruto pulled out of Shikamaru until only the head of his member was still inside, he took aim and slammed into the boy one last time before flooding his body with his seed. Shikamaru came a second after him, his sperm spilling all over him, as they came down from their high, Naruto readjusted Shikamaru so that he was laying on the side of the bed that was against the wall. Naruto laid down next to him on the bed as they both caught their breath. Naruto let out a sigh and looked over to Shikamaru who seemed to be waiting patiently, Naruto looked into Shikamaru's dark brown eyes for a second before looking towards the ceiling, "I hate this village." He began, "every day, they torture me for something that I could not control, they hurt me beyond logical explanation. Their reasoning for it is severely flawed, but I will forgive them...by burning their sins away."

 

Shikamaru listened to Naruto as he stared at the blond's face. He looked over every feature. His tanned skin, the faded bruises...the whiskers on his face that didn't seem to match with anything on him but his personality seemed to have grown from it. Then it hit him, unlike the markings on Kiba's face, Naruto's whiskers weren't a show of clan symbol that was painted on and later tattooed, instead, they looked to be like a sort of birthmark that just appeared. He reached out to touch them, he felt the stiffening of the blond beside him, "you've never been shown kindness, have you?" Shikamaru asked as his fingers reached the scared cheeks.

 

Naruto relaxed a bit under the boys' touch, he turned to him, "I grew to never expect it, so it's foreign to me."

 

Shikamaru frowned, "if you've never been shown kindness, then how would you have taken care of your friends and family?"

 

"I never expected to have a family, so I never thought of that." Naruto stated as he turned his eyes back up to the ceiling, "but since I've been given this opportunity, I will not wast it. So I've decided."

 

"On what?" Shikamaru asked as he traced Naruto's whiskers softly with the tips of his fingers.

 

"I'll make a clan." The blond said, he looked back to Shikamaru, "and you, and Kiba, and Hinata will be apart of it. You'll have my kids and I'll protect you all, I'll do my best to treat you all right, but in return, you all must stay by my side until the very end."

 

Shikamaru's fingers stopped and he looked into the blue eyes of the blond. He noticed that they had stopped glowing red after they came together a little while ago. "Why were you're eyes red just now?" He wondered out loud as he turned on his side and used his arm and elbows to prop him up so he could look the blood in the eyes properly.

 

Naruto expected this from the Nara, he could already feel the effects of the mark coming through. The link was already created, he smiled. "I've marked you as my first mate, and since I marked you just now, my eyes were red so Kyuubi could set up the link. I couldn't do it on my own, a hint of his chakra was needed to fulfill the process to its fullest." He chuckled, "so I guess you have no choice in the matter now, sorry."

 

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at him. Naruto could see the disbelief in the Nara's eyes, so he pointed towards the boy's neck. Shikamaru reached a hand around the area where Naruto bit him, he couldn't really feel anything different on his skin, but he did feel a slight pain around his neck. His fingers went to the crook of his neck and he felt it, a slight rise in the skin there. Naruto could see the mark starting to form outwardly on Shikamaru's neck with fire, Shika jumped a little when the tip of his fingers grazed the heated lines that were started to appear. Since it was on the side of his neck, he couldn't see it, but he knew that his parents and anyone else that looked would. Shikamaru looked back at Naruto, "this is the mark?" Naruto nodded, "what does it do, or will do to me?"

 

"Nothing much," Naruto shrugged.

 

Shikamaru sent him a glare, "I'm serious, will it go away when it's done? I can't be walking around with this thing on my neck, people will ask questions."

 

Naruto put up his hands in defiance, a light-hearted chuckle escaping his lips, "what I mean to say is, the mark won't hurt you. It's a gift that will help you give birth to my children since it appeared on your neck, you are guaranteed to be pregnant right. Again, I'm sorry, but once I place it, it will not disappear until I do."

 

"What does that mean?" Shikamaru asked a little weary of his new mark.

 

"Nothing too tragic," Naruto replied as he sat up on the bed. "Well, I must be going now, I still have to get to Hinata and Kiba before th night ends."

 

"Wait, you're marking Hinata too? Why?" Shikamaru asked as he also sat up on the bed, his hand still on his neck over the spot where the mark was still forming.

 

"Isn't it obvious? I have to mark them so that everyone knows that you guys belong to me. Not like property, but well..." Naruto shrugged as he thought of the right words to say. "I just want to make sure that no one gets the idea in their heads that they can touch you and do whatever they want. Besides, if you're ever in trouble, all you have to do is focus on me and I'll rescue you no problem." He stood up and turned back to Shikamaru after he reached the window again, " as I said, I'll treat you well, you just have to stay by my side," he opened the window and looked out at the moon. It was a full moon tonight, as he was going to jump out the window, Shikamaru stopped him.

 

"Wait," Shikamaru said as he hurriedly fixed his pants and got off the bed, "I want to come too."

 

"...Why?" Asked as he gave the Nara a curious look.

 

"...Because, I," Shikamaru turned away from Naruto's gaze for a second to think of the right words to say. Only, he wasn't able to, "because...I just do," finally managed to say.

 

Naruto looked at the other boy for a long while until he nodded his head once. "Fine, 

 

* * *

**Inuzuka compound**

 

Kiba was not able to sleep.

 

He was was restless, for what reason? He didn't know.

 

What he did know was that he couldn't get Naruto out of his mind. The way he touched him, the way he spoke, everything about the blood was filling his mind up and there was nothing he could do to stop it. He was also a little worried, earlier today after he came him with his mom, he overheard them talking in the kitchen when they thought he was still outside with the rest of the clan celebrating. He heard his mom telling his sister that he smelt like a fox, from the way that his sister reacted, she didn't see too happy about that. He listened to them speak for a minute until they started heading for the entrance to the kitchen and he had to leave before he was caught.

 

**Flashback**

 

_Kiba had just come back inside to get a drink of water. Everyone was still outside celebrating his graduation since he was the new heir to the clan, he felt like a king in the making with all of their well-wishes. He was making his way to the kitchen when he heard his mother talking. "We can't allow that demon to get his filthy hands on our clan, it could destroy us. All that we've worked for! Gone! But then again, it looks like it might already be too late to stop that from happening," came the sound of his mother's voice. Now Kiba knew that eavesdropping was not good to do on family, especially when it's about something personal. But since this conversation was about the future of their clan and since he was a clan heir, he thought that he might as well know everything that's going on with his clan so he will be able to prepare for it in the future. Hopefully, he wouldn't get caught before he learned all that was going on, and if he did get caught, he knew that this would have to be something he had to work on for his ninja career. With that said, he stopped just outside the closed door leading into the kitchen and listened._

 

_"Why do you say that, Ma?" Hana's voice sounded worried._

 

_"Today, when I went to pick up Kiba, he didn't come out with the rest of the kids. I waited for about half an hour with Shikaku and one of the branch members of the Hyuuga clan, it looked like Shikamaru and Hinata also didn't come out when it was time. When I finally saw Kiba, he had the scent of that damn fox all over him. It was disgusting!" Tsume growled, Hana gasped._

 

_"You don't think that Kiba's-" Hana couldn't finish that thought because her mother interrupted her._

 

_"That doesn't matter, if Kiba has already been corrupted by the demon, then he can no longer be the heir to our clan." Tsume said with an air of finality._

 

_"What?! What he just became clan heir this year, can we really do that to him, Ma?" Hana asked._

 

_"There is no we, Hana," Tsume stated. "If the council of elders hear about this, and trust me, they'll smell it before they hear it, then they're more likely to side with me on this matter than anyone else. They'll kick Kiba out of the clan and probably brand him a traitor for this too."_

 

_"What, but why? Just because he smells like that fox? They can't!" Hana said, "why-"_

_"Think about it Hana, how can a clan be lead by someone that's so corrupted by such an evil being? A murder at that!" Tsume said as anger filled her voice, "what's worse is that I think that the fox is trying to get into his head. He's probably trying to get into his head to the point that Kiba drops his guard and gives up clan secrets, as the current clan head, I can't allow that to happen."_

 

_There was a long pause in the kitchen, that is until Hana spoke. "Then...if that's the case, then we'll need to make sure that the demon doesn't get his hands on our future. Even if that means we have to pick a different heir."_

 

_"...Hm, hopefully, Kiba doesn't take it too hard. If it wasn't for the fox, then this wouldn't be happening," Tsume said, a bit of sadness entered her voice, "and he would still be here."_

 

_It was clear who his mother was talking about. Kiba had asked his mother many times why he didn't have a dad when he was much younger. She never answered him until the day of his seventh birthday. That was when he learned of what happened, however, it wasn't until a few hours earlier that he really learned what had happened to his father. After this revelation was made clear, his heart broke a little, he couldn't sort out his feelings at the moment, so he decided to leave them for later. When he would be alone. Just then, he heard his mother and sister coming towards the door, Kiba made sure to leave the area as quickly and quietly as he possibly could._

 

**Flashback end**

 

 

Now Kiba was left here thinking back to the conversation in the kitchen. He couldn't really believe it, he thought it was some sort of joke, one that his sister must have been in on. Yeah, that must have been, his mother must want to test him or something to see if he's got the stuff to be a clan heir...Or at least, that was what Kiba's been trying to tell himself all throughout his celebration party. Yet, every time his mind went back to that conversation his mother and sister had in the kitchen, an image of a masked man controlling a crazed Kyuubi kept appearing with it. He didn't know how to really feel about either, the conversation and the images that his mind was coming up with seemed to contradict each other greatly. Kiba let out a heavy sigh and looked to his side where Akamaru's bed laid empty. Since he was going to become the clan heir, or when he thought he was, Akamaru was taken away to be given extra training so that he could further help Kiba in the future. His partner was supposed to come back tomorrow evening so they could practice their dynamics before finding out what team they would be on. Although, after what he heard earlier, he wasn't sure if he was going to be able to keep Akamaru with him any longer. He would be deeply saddened if his best friend was taken away just because he hung out with Naruto for a little while and got his scent on him. Even though 'hanging out' might not be the exact term that Kiba would use to describe the events that happened between them. Kiba blushed as his mind flashed back to their time in the empty classroom and then again in the forest. His cheeks burned red as he suddenly sat up in his bed. "No, no, no, stop thinking about it! You can't be the heir as long as you hang out with that guy!" He hissed at himself, his determined face slowly morphed back into one of sadness, "why'd it have to be him? Couldn't the forth have chosen some other kid?" He muttered to himself as he felt his heart beat pick up as he kept on thinking about Naruto's face.

 

Its common knowledge that when an Inuzuka mates, they mate for life. The reason for that happening to be in the history of the Inuzuka clan's history. But that is a story for another time. 

 

_Knock, Knock_

 

Kiba looked over to the sound of something knowing on his window, which struck him as odd because there were no trees outside his window. What he saw at his window nearly gave him a heart attack. Kiba ran over to the window and opened it as quickly as he could, "Naruto? Shika? What are you two doing here?" He asked he stepped back from the window as Naruto and Shikamaru climb through it, "don't you know what time it is?"

 

"Ha, that's exactly what I said when he came to my window before," Shikamaru said, a slight grumble to his voice.

 

Kiba looked over to Shikamaru and his eyes instantly fell upon the mark that was slowly forming on his neck. He couldn't make out the shape in the dark, it mostly just looked like random lines or something to him at the moment. "Shika? What's going on here? I would have imagined you sound asleep in your bed by this point."

 

"I was," Shikamaru started with a yawn, he jabbed a thump at the blond, "but then this guy decided to come over for a late night fuck session."

 

Kiba blushed a little at Shikamaru's words, "a what!" He nearly yelled but still managed to keep his voice just above a whisper as to not wake up his family. Speaking of his family, his mind thought back to the conversation he overheard in the kitchen again and he frowned. He looked over to Naruto, "hey, Naruto, can...can I ask you something?"

 

Naruto, who made his way over to sit on Kiba's bed while the two talked, nodded his head. "Sure, what is it?" He asked he could see that Kiba had something troubling him ever since he appeared at the boy's window and saw him in deep thought. He was curious as to what his second mate would inform him of.

 

"Well, I, uh...I just wanted to know, this goal of yours...what are you planning to do with us exactly? Or with me, to be more specific?" Kiba asked hesitantly.

 

"What am I planning?" Naruto repeated to himself with a thoughtful look. He gave Kiba a long look before smirking, "why...I want to take over the world, of course."

 

"Take over? What do you mean by that?" Kiba asked curiously.

 

Naruto raised an eyebrow, even though 'taking over the world' was a lie, it was also partly true. He wanted to take over Konoha, in a sense, and make all those who made him suffer for no reason pay for their crimes. Equivalent exchange or that's what the fox called it anyways. However, he didn't expect Kiba to give him a curious look, the more expected it to be along the lines of shock and maybe anger. Yet, he was curious, "tell me Kiba, what happened after you came home from the academy with your mom today? Was there something important that happened at the party they had in your honor?"

 

"How would you know that there was a party?" Kiba asked.

 

"Because I've been watching," Naruto said with a slight smirk as he leaned back on the headboard a little, making himself comfortable.

 

"Watching? Who, me? Why?" Kiba asked, curious and suspicious at the same time.

 

"Because I wanted to make sure that you three didn't rat me out when the time came. Since the Kyuubi was placed inside of me, I have had an overwhelming sense of hope in the village that people have swiftly crushed time and time again as I grew up. I know the truth. No one in this village can be trusted, but I was hoping that you three would be different," Naruto explained.

 

Kiba frowned and looked over to Shikamaru, "did you know about this, Shikamaru? Are you in on it too?" He asked, his doubts were high, but also half-hearted since his mind was still lingering on the conversation he had overheard.

 

Shikamaru shook his head with a yawn, "Nah, this is totally new for me." 

 

Kiba looked back to Naruto, "wait, what did you mean by 'the three of you'? Who else have you been watching, and how? I didn't sense or smell you at all."

 

"I suppose not, I used my clones to watch over you, Shikamaru and Hinata after you guys left. I wanted to make sure that you guys can be trusted, from what I've seen of the two of you, I don't have anything to worry about." Naruto explained, he stretched his arms to the sky before lacing his hands behind his head, "so, since I've found that out, I've come over to mark you and make you my official mate." He stated as he watched Kiba's reaction closely, he knew that the Inuzuka would have something to say about it. Either about the marking or about his clan, he was sure to ask.

 

"What do you mean by, official? Didn't we fuck like twice at school already?" Kiba asked, his cheeks were blushing slightly as he said this, "you got your scent all over me, isn't that enough for you? Besides, Inuzuka couples don't place matting marks until they're at least sixteen, so what's the big rush?" He looked away from the blond as he spoke, unable to meet his eyes while talking about such things.

 

"Well, I'm not an Inuzuka, actually, I don't really have a clan in this village anymore." Naruto stated as he removed his hands from behind his head and sat up straight, "look, I'm trying to complete a process that's already been set in motion. I really can't stop it."

 

"What is it, what can't you stop?" Kiba asked as he watched Naruto get off the bed, as the blond took a step towards him, his first instinct was to run. To hide. For some reason, he felt like what was to come next, will shape his future, but he didn't run. One, because he was an Inuzuka, he was told since he was young that Inuzuka's never run. Second, he found that the longer he stood there, watching as Naruto took every step to get closer to him. Every step seems slow, paused, as if he were waiting for him to say something and didn't say anything in return. Kiba noticed that he had yet to make a move from his spot when Naruto was standing only inches away from him, he wasn't paralyzed or unable to move, in fact, it was the sight of blue eyes turning red that made him unable to move. Even though those eyes gave off an evil feel, they never felt truly evil. 

 

Naruto stopped in front of Kiba, taking him in with his now red eyes. "You're not running?" He asked softly as he looked deep within Kiba's dark brown eyes.

 

Kiba kept staring into Naruto's eyes, "why would I run?"

 

"...Good," Naruto's eyes turned to Shikamaru's, they soon after feel to the new mark that was finished forming at the base of his neck. "Shikamaru, why don't you have a seat on the bed? Kiba and I will join you soon."

 

Kiba turned his head to Shikamaru, almost completely forgetting that the Nara was still in the room. He watched as Shikamaru wordlessly walked over to the bed and have a seat. The Nara made himself comfortable on the bed and waited for the blond and brunet to join him. Naruto turned back to Kiba once he saw that Shikamaru did what he was told. He gently lifted his hand up to caress Kiba's tanned cheek, Kiba unconsciously turned his head into Naruto's mental hold, feeling the warmth of that radiated from it. Forgetting all of his troubles. Naruto leaned in until his head was next to Kiba's, his lips grazed the base of his neck for a second before he opened his mouth and bit down into the flesh. Kiba moaned at the feeling when Naruto removed his lips from his neck, a firey sensation started to spread from the bite mark that Naruto left. Kiba felt the sensation start to travel from his neck down to his chest and the rest of his body, over taking his senses with heat. He was so focused on the sensation that he didn't notice when Naruto led him over to the bed or when he laid down on it. Shikamaru made room for the two and watched what happened next, he was curious to see if this was what he was like when Naruto did this to him. Naruto kept an eye on Kiba as they made it over and on to the bed, he laid Kiba on his back next to Shikamaru, all the while keeping eye contact with him. Without breaking eye contract, Naruto spoke, "when we're done here, we're going to have to leave Hinata for tomorrow. We won't have enough time to deal with here tonight," he said.

 

Shikamaru realized that he was talking to him, he was curious why this was, so he asked. "Why not? It was only about twelve-forty-five when we left my house."

 

Naruto's eyes slowly turned from too deep red to bright red as he started undoing Kiba's pants, "I know..." He started once he had the other boy's pants pulled down enough, "but, with the way that the Hyuuga clan's compound is set up, we won't all be able to sneak in the way that you two are now. I would rather not risk it tonight," he opened Kiba's legs and got between them, Kiba, by this point, seemed a little more aware of his surroundings. If only slightly, Shikamaru was sure that he was still experiencing the pain from the heat that accompanies the mark Naruto left, he leaned in closer so he could have a look at the mark on Kiba's neck. He wanted to see what it looked like while it was forming since he couldn't look at his own neck to see his own doing the same.

 

"...Hold his hand."

   
"Huh?" Shikamaru was a little startled by the blond's voice when he suddenly spoke. He looked up at Naruto to find that his blue eyes were looking deep into his brown ones, just like before. He blushed a little as his mind went back to just before they left his compound. He jumped again when he felt Naruto's hand on his suddenly, for a moment, he had forgotten where he was. "What are you-"

 

"Here...you need to hold his hand so we can all be connected," Naruto stated as he guided one of Shikamaru's hands over to Kiba's. He held Kiba's other hand after taking out his dick from his pants, this way, they would all be connected, in a way.

 

Shikamaru was confused by that but decided to go with it for now. He would find out what he meant later. Shikamaru felt a little odd watching Naruto having sex with Kiba while he held the Inuzuka's hand, he remembered falling asleep after his first time in the forest with the blond. It was a deep, relaxing sleep, one of the better napes he's ever had. It was a shame that it had ended so soon, with that said, as far as he knew, this was Kiba's first time. He wondered how Kiba felt about it. As he watched Naruto plow into Kiba's body, he couldn't help but wonder,  _"what will do this accomplish? Is this a sort of ancient mating bond brought about by the Kyuubi? If so, what will it do to us in the future if we keep doing it this way?"_   

 

Meanwhile, Naruto could feel the connection between his two mates grow and strengthen. It brought joy to his heart to feel such a connection with another human being, a connection unlike any he's felt before. When he was finished with Kiba, he came inside of him, just like he did with Shikamaru. From what he was told, with his mark on him them, they are both most likely to wake up with some noticeable changes. He couldn't wait to see what they would be, and since he finished inside both of them, they will definitely be pregnant in no time. Naruto smirked as his eyes faded back to its natural blue state as he pulled out of Kiba. He panted to catch his breath and fell onto Shikamaru's lap to rest for a bit. The real reason why he didn't think they could replicate this with Hinata tonight, was not only because of the layout of the Hyuuga compound but because of the Hyuuga dojutsu. The Byakugan is meant to be an 'all seeing eye', it can see from far way, in varying lights, not to mention that it is used to see a person's chakra points. If he were to try to sneak in there, let alone with his newly marked mates, they would see him coming from a mile or two away. Since Kyuubi is a mass of chakra in fox form, that means that there's more of a chance of them seeing him than Shikamaru or Kiba or both. It would be like shinning a light in the dark and shouting 'here I am' for all to hear. No, he would rather wait to see if Hinata came to meet him at the meeting spot he mentioned, he sighed tiredly and snuggled his head into Shikamaru's thighs, which seemed softer since the last time he felt them.  _"Is this a side effect from the mark?"_ He wondered to himself as he used said thighs as a pillow, another reason why he couldn't make it to the Hyuuga compound tonight was because he was getting tired. Kyuubi warned him that marking his mates would take up some of his energy, he didn't think that the fox was lying, but at the same time, the only time he had ever felt so tired was when he was running away from a mob. Or when he was being healed from a deathlike state by the Kyuubi, other than that, he's only ever felt an endless stream of energy that always felt like ti came out of nowhere. No he was falling asleep on Shikamaru and he couldn't be bothered to do anything about it, so he closed his eyes without care and slept.

 

As for Kiba and Shikamaru, Kiba was recovering from his recent orgasm. It wasn't like anything he's ever felt before, especially not by his own hand. Not to mention that the first two times felt like they paled in comparison to this one. Kiba took in a deep breath, held it in, and then let it out in a long stream as he caught his breath. He turned his head over to Shikamaru's side to see the Nara looked down at something. He followed his case to see a mess of blond hair almost covering a slightly tanned face. Once his eyes focused, he realized that the messy blond hair belonged to Naruto. "Naruto?...Hey, Naruto, w-"

 

"Sshhh, he fell asleep," Shikamaru whispered as he let his free hand brush back some of Naruto's hair out of his face. He looked down at the sleeping form of his 'mate' and shook his head, "troublesome blond." He sighed, "do you mind if we sleep here tonight? I don't think we'll be able to move him no matter what," Shikamaru looked over to Kiba.

 

Kiba looked up from staring at Naruto's sleeping face. He pouted a little, "I guess, but we'll have to make sure that my Ma or big sister doesn't come in unexpectedly in the morning." The Inuzuka yawned tiredly and slowly got up from the bed, although, he was moving extra slow because of the recent pounding his ass received just now, yet, he still managed to work through the pain. He looked around his room to see what he could do for his unexpected guest, he couldn't really be bothered to kick either of them out of his room to avoid the trouble that was sure to come in the morning. Kiba left the bed and made his way over to his closet as he pulled up his pants, he gathered some sheets and extra pillows and brought them back to the bed. He arrived just in time to witness Shikamaru yawn, "did you guys do it again too?" He asked as he started spreading the extra sheet out over his bed, covering both Naruto and a part of Shikamaru.

 

"Yeah, he wore me out and still had the energy to carry me on his back all the way over here and do you too. I swear, this guy's got too much energy," Shikamaru yawned again.

 

Kiba chuckled, "well if that's the case, I guess we're going to have some fun wearing this guy out in the future. Seeing as how there is two, well three if you count Hinata, we could take turns." Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at Kiba as he got back into bed and made himself comfortable, thankfully he was allowed a king-sized bed for his twelve birthday or else the three of them wouldn't have been able to fit. Kiba laid back down on his pillow after handing Shikamaru the extra one, "hm? What?" He asked after spying the look Shikamaru gave him.

 

"Kiba..." Shikamaru sighed, "what a drag, I'm too tired for this now. Good night," he shirted Naruto off of his lap and laid down next to the blond using the pillow he was given. Naruto didn't move from the spot he was shifted to, other than to make himself comfortable, but didn't do anything more than that.

 

Kiba shrugged his shoulders and turned away from his late night guest. Now that he was able to sleep with a clear head, he took the chance. "Goodnight," it was at this moment that he would thank himself for locking his door every night before bed. The last time he left it unlocked, his sister snuck in and put smelly slime in his shoes and replaced his 'manly' shampoo for a girly one. He had to spend the whole day stepping on gooey slime and smelling weird, Akamaru didn't let ride on his head that day, needless to say.

 

* * *

 

**With Hinata**

 

Hinata sat up in her bed, she had just woken up at her usual time, a little after midnight. She got out of bed quietly and changed her clothes from pajama to training clothes. He grabbed her bags from the closet and activated her family's dojutsu to check the outside when she was satisfied with what she saw, she left her room quietly. She kept her eyes activated as she made her way down the hall, she couldn't get caught, not now, and not tonight. She had the day off of school in the morning, but that didn't mean that her father would let her sleep in, so she had to make sure she got out of the compound unseen or else she would never have this chance again. She made her way to the part of the compound that resided just outside of the sleeping quarters, she made her way towards the back of the compound before she stopped to put on her shoes. After that, she continued to the outer portion surrounding the compound. She looked up at the trees by the walls, to those that don't live in the compound, you would think that they were just trees, but that would be a wrong assumption. In actuality, the trees that grow in and outside of the compound walls were strategically placed to be used as lookout post that would never be visible by anyone that either didn't bother to look closely or wonder about the security of the clan. It is true that the clan do have guards posted at the front entrance, which happen to be the only visible entrance other than going over the walls. Yet, Hinata knew that there were guards posted around the compound during the day and night, she spotted one when she was only three after the kidnapping incident happened. She also noticed a small increase in security after her sister was born and her mother died in birth. She wasn't as foolish as her clan members had assumed her to be, in fact, she was more aware of the situation she was in more than anyone. However, instead of showing her true colors, she wanted to give her father a chance to prove that he wasn't a hearless man. Yet, after returning from the academy after the genin test, she overheard some of the branch members talking, from what she overheard, she didn't like. Now she had to make sure that all of her hard work didn't go to waste because of it.

 

Hinata ran straight towards the wall surrounding her compound and focused her chakra. She only had a small chance in doing this correctly, she had practiced in her room, but this was different. She focused on her control and speed up. As she got close to the wall, she closed her eyes and speed up, even more, hoping to the heavings that she made. With her concentration hooked on the wall, she put on foot after another. Before she knew it, she was running up the wall, but she didn't let that stop her. She kept running until she was at the top, she then jumped down and prepared to roll upon landing before taking off once more. She continued on into the wooded area of the forest, making her way through the dense forest, maneuvering through the trees, making sure to stick to the ground so she wasn't potted. She was lucky tonight, it didn't look like anyone has noticed her yet, she ran in zig-zags to throw off her trail, she stopped suddenly and started running back the way she came before jumping up into a backflip. She landed in a bush and rolled around in, not bothering to check what kind of bush it was, she could deal with it later, she just needed to make sure that she covered her scent a little with the leaves. Luckily for her, the bush she landed in happened to be a Razina bush, a very special type of plant that can mask anyone's scent. Hinata got up from the bush and started running off into a seemingly random direction, she was mostly running on adrenalin at this point, but that didn't matter. She heard movement in the trees above her, her heart skipped a beat and she speeds up her pace again.

 

"Hinata, Hinata! Stip it's me, Naruto, hold on!" Called a voice in the distance.

 

Hinata wasn't going to believe that for a second, even though it sounded just like her crush. She had made sure to tell herself that she couldn't let herself be fooled so easily by anyone. _"Besides, why would Naruto be in the woods at this time of the night anyway? I can't stop, I must get as far away from the compound as I can."_   She thought to herself as she kept on running, she wasn't going to let herself be caught now, so she had to make sure to leave while she could. She wouldn't go back either, she didn't ever want to go back, some would think that she was only running away, but she would rather run away than to go through with their plans. Her thoughts were so focused on getting away that she barely noticed when someone appeared beside her and held her arm firmly. Hinata turned on her heels, retrieved a kunai from her bag, and prepared to fight whoever it was that caught her in a matter of seconds. However, before she could make the first move, her wrist was caught and she was forced against something hard, but sturdy, most likely a tree of some sort. It was in this moment that she was able to get a good look, or good enough with the lack of lighting in the forest, to see that the person that captured her was, in fact, Naruto Uzumaki.

 

 

**To be continued...**


	5. Training 44

**Previously**

 

Iruka reports what he suspects is the Kyuubi controlling Naruto to the Hokage. The Hokage then devises a plan to make the villagers at least try to make amends with the Kyuubi vessel. Meanwhile, said vessel had already decided on who would be his first mate since the Kyuubi had explained to him that the first mate was important for the future. Naruto decided that, after leaving his potential mates, he would spy on them as a test of trust. The reason? Because he had none. Following all three home with clones, he decides that Shikamaru would be his first mate and went to him first at twelve o'clock at night, you know as a true Prince Charming would. Shikamaru lets him in and Naruto goes in for a kiss and ends up marking the Nara by bitting his neck like the vampire he is. He then pounds that ass into the bed, making sure not to do anything too crazy to wake up his family. When he was done, he leaves the Nara compound with Shikamaru in tow and heads to Kiba's house. The Inuzuka, at the time, was unable to sleep because he overheard that he may or may not be his clan's heir in the near future, but all those thoughts fly out the window when he gets a late night visitor. Or visitors. He lets Shikamaru and Naruto into his room and finds out that both him and Shikamaru were being watched by the blond's clones. Which makes the young Inuzuka wonder if the clone also overheard the conversation. Soon enough, Naruto is standing in front of him with those piercing red eyes. They get on the bed, with Shikamaru, of course, can't forget about him. Naruto does the same thing he did to Shikamaru to Kiba, before long, Kiba was also marked and all three of them fell asleep, too tired to worry about the approaching morning. At the same time at the Hyuuga compound, Hinata plans an escape but is captured by Naruto. But the question is, what or who was she running from?

 

* * *

  **Now**

_Inuzuka compound (same night)_

 

Naruto awoke a little after two in the morning, the sun wasn't even close to coming up yet, and he was still tired from all the fun he had earlier. However, something woke him up, and that something happened to be the new memories that came from his clone. The clone that he sent to watch Hinata hours ago had finally dispelled after using up the last of its chakra. It seems that it had a talk with Hinata before dispelling.

 

**Flashback**

 

_"Naruto? Is that really you?" Hinata asked as she deactivated her byakugan, "wh-what are you doing here?" She asked surprised._

 

_"Sorry, Hinata, but the boss sent me to watch you after he left. I'm really just a clone," the clone stated as he let go of Hinata's arm and wrist._

 

_"A clone?" Hinata looked at the clone confused when her eyes were still active, she clearly saw a chakra pathway that indicated a human being. Not a clone. Clones don't have chakra pathways, or at least, regular clones don't. "Then that must mean..."_

 

 _"Yes, that's right, I'm not a regular clone, I'm a shadow clone. It's a higher level of the clone jutsu, it's not taught in the academy because academy students and genin cannot hope to ever make a clone of that level." The Naruto clone explained, "but, since its Naruto we're talking about, then it was more than possible to make not just one shadow clone, but multiple shadow clones. With his large chakra reserves, he was able to learn and execute the jutsu within a weeks time, even less actually." The clone could tell by the look on Hinata's face that she was surprised, not only that, but she had also stopped stuttering. He filed the information away for a later date, along with the fact that he saw her slip through the very small blind spot in the Hyuuga compound. He hadn't noted it until she slipped through it, he would be sure to remember the spot for later as well. Now he had a question for her, "why were you running away at the middle of the night?"_ _Hinata's eyes widened a little before she looked down at her feet. Naruto raised an eyebrow at that, "okay, so where are you going?"_

 

_"I-I was going to the forest to sleep under the stars," Hinata explained, she poked her fingers together as a way to deal with her nervousness. "I haven't been stargazing since I was little, so I just thought that-"_

 

_"You can stop that," Naruto sighed, Hinata looked up at him, wondering if he was mad at her or something. It was late, she was alone, and the forest can be dangerous at night if he were her father, she was sure that he would yell at her, giving her a lecture about how useless and irresponsible she was. But, he didn't, instead, he said, "why don't you tell me the truth? It's not like I can walk into the compound at the dead of night to tell on you anyways, your father might have me marked or something." He sighed deeply, not liking this thought, he knew, somehow, that Hiashi Hyuuga have been trying to do something against him for a long time now. He wasn't sure what it was, but after learning about the branch members of the Hyuuga clan, he now thought it likely to be marked by the clan head to share the same fate as the branch members. Yet, he was reassured by the Kyuubi that the current clan head would have to get a good enough reason to do so. As much comfort as thought idea would have given anyone else, it only stressed the fact that Naruto was hated by just about everyone in the village. All the adults most of all, and the children would be converted or persuaded to hate him as well. It really did chalk up to quite a shitty life._

 

_"O-okay, I was leaving the compound, because..." Hinata contemplated on telling him the truth. She didn't think he would really believe her, but she wanted to try. "Because, tomorrow evening, in front of the whole clan, my father would announce a deul between me and my younger sister. We would be fighting for the right for clan heir, and if I lost tomorrow, then...he would disown me." A tear came to her eye as she thought back on the conversation she heard her father have with a clan elder a few hours before. She just couldn't think of a way that the fight would go well for her. Even if she did win, the branch members would think that she was cruel to beat up her own little sister just to keep being the clan heiress. If she lost, the main branch would continue to think she was weak, even more then than before, and on top of that, she would be marked as a branch member without a home. Yet, it wasn't like she was really weak like she allowed everyone to think she was, in fact, she had been training by herself every day ever since she had been kidnapped._

 

_"What are you thinking about, Hinata?" Naruto asked curiously when he saw the faraway look on her face._

 

_"Hm, uh, it's nothing, so why are you out here, Naruto?" Hinata asked as she came back from her own thoughts._

 

_"Like I said, Naruto sent me to watch over you after he left earlier. He wanted to make sure that you wouldn't tell anyone when you got home." The clone explained as he looked back in the direction of the compound, "actually, come with me. We can talk on the way," he said as he grabbed Hinata's hand and started to run in a seemingly random direction._

 

_"Naruto? What's wrong?" Hinata asked, she let herself be led by the clone to wherever he was going to take her. She was curious on where they were going though, without her byakugan active, she couldn't see past two feet in front of her. Which brough up the question, how was Naruto able to run when the forest they were in was so dense that not even moonlight got in. "Where are we going?"_

 

_"I have to take you to the boss so that you don't get caught by those branch members that came out to look for you." The clone stated as they continued to run, "I'm not sure when they noticed your absonse, by they were only minutes away from discovring us if I didn't act quickly." He looked back to see the surprised look on Hinata's face, coupled with the look of awe, he smiled kindly at her, "don't worry, the boss will look after you. Hopefully I can get you there before my chakra runs out," the clone stopped at the edge of the forest, which they got to rather quickly, Hinata noticed. He got down in a croutched position, "get on my back, I can go much quicker if I'm not worried about you tripping on something."_

 

_"Uh, okay," Hinata said, slightly hesitant, but still, she got onto the clone's back and watched as they sored through the village. If she didn't know any better, she would have said that they were flying since the blond seemed to be moving so fast._

 

**Flashback end**

 

After receving the memories, Naruto managed to get out of bed with out waking up either of his new mates. He looked around the dark room to see that it was the same as when he first arrived. He looked around and found some extra sheets and a pillow in the closet. He walked back over to the bed just in time to see a shadowy figure outside the window. Naruto placed the extra bedding down so he could go over to open the window for the suspected person, "hey, Hinata, did you make it alright?" He asked casually as Hinata tried to climb into the window without waking anyone, it seemed to work as she barely made a sound upon entry. 

 

Hinata stood by the window with her bag on her back and turned to the real Naruto. The clone had dispelled only seconds ago, "Naruto, is it really you?" She asked, still wondering about the chakra network that the clone seemed to have when she first saw it.

 

The blond nodded his head, "yeah, it's me. Take off your shoes, we can talk more in the morning," Naruto yawned as he walked back to the bed, picked up the extra bedding, and started spreading it on the floor next to it. He made sure to place the sheets on the side of the bed that was not facing the door, laying it just close enough that she wouldn't be stepped on when they woke up in the morning. Hinata watched Naruto spread the bed sheets on the floor for a second as she wondered who's room they were currently in, "this is Kiba's room." Naruto answered her unasked question, "think of it as a sleepover, kind of," he finished laying down the sheets and handed her the pillow, "you can put you bag down, he knows I'm here, so it's okay for you too."

 

"Is it really?" Hinata asked shyly, she didn't want to admit to her crush that she had never been to a sleepover before in her life.

 

Naruto nodded his head, "yeah, when everyone's awake, we'll get breakfast and head over to the forest. Once there, I'll explain some things that I forgot to mention before, okay?" 

 

"U-uh, y-y-yeah," Hinata stuttered a bit as she put down her bag and took off her shoes before getting into the makeshift bed Naruto set out for her. 

 

"Good, goodnight," Naruto stated as he went to check the lock on the door, he wanted to make sure that it was really locked before going back to sleep. When he was satified, he took off his jacket and slipped back under the covers to snuggle with his current mates. The warmth he felt was nice, usually he would be left to warm himself up with just the clothes on his back, which made him think about what it would be like later on when he got more mates. He didn't want any of them to feel alone at night...he would come with something to deal with that thought when the time came.

 

As for HInata, she was a little nervouse to sleep in an unfamiliar room for the first time. Yet, there was something comforting about this room, she didn't know what it was since she's never been to the Inuzuka clan before, let alone in Kiba's room. Whatever that familiar feeling of comfort was, it helped put her to sleep, "goodnight," she whispered back to Naruto. From the soft sound of brething she heard in the room, she was sure that the blond was already asleep by now, a soft smile appeared on her face as she laid her head on the pillow she was given. Somehow, she could feel a change starting to occure in the air, but she didn't think too hard on it at the time.

 

* * *

**Nara compound**

_The next morning_  

 

It was early the next morning and Shikajin, who would prefer to be called just 'Jin', was sneaking up to his big brother's bedroom door. It was still early enough in the morning that he knew his brother and parents would still be alseep, seeing as how the sun had yet to come up. For some reason, Jin was the only Nara that was able to wake up early whenever he wanted, its not that his other clansmen didn't wants, they just prefer not to. As he snuck up to his bothers door, he listened to hear if his brother was up yet, because, even though rare, he knew that his brother, Shikamaru, did sometimes wake up early, for what reason? Jin had no idea. Since he didn't hear any movements beyond the closed door, he assumed that Shikamaru was still sleeping, like aways, and would remain that way until their mother came to wake him for breakfast. Opening the door, Jin peared into the room, "Shika-nee-chan, I can't sleep, can I sleep with you?" He asked softly, of course, he could still go back to sleep if he wanted, but he did like sneaking into his brother's room to sleep there instead. Ever since he was a baby, he could always remember sleeping comfortably with Shikamaru, much better than by himself in his own room. Looking into the room, he couldn't really see anything because of the darkness, and he didn't get an answer to his question either, not like he was expecting one in the first place anyways. In that case, he decided to take this as an invitation to go inside, he closed the door and went over to the bed to see if he could way his brother and ask again. However, when he got to the bed, he didn't see the usual covered up shape of his big brother, but, it did look like someone had sleeped in the bed recently. This is an unsusual situation to see his big brother's room empty, but not uncommon, yet the commonness of it was about as rare, if not more so, then when his big brother would be awake before anyone else. Shikajin frowned, he wanted to sleep with his brother in his bed, not because of nightmares, although, he would never admit it even if it were true. Since it seemed that Shikamaru was already awake, Jin decided to make himself comfortable in Shikamaru's bed and wait for him to come back. He could probably use this as blackmail later. With a smirk, Shikajin laid down and covered himself in his brother's covers to wait until his brother came back to his room, when Shikamaru cames back, Jin was planning to jump out from the covers and scare him. The little four year old chuckled to himself silently and waited.

 

**Later that same morning**

 

Shikamaru didn't come back that morning.

 

And Shikajin ended falling sleep while he waited.

 

When Yoshino came into the room to wake Shikamaru up, frying pan in hand because she knew her first son wouldn't wake up so easily. She didn't seem to notice that the curled up lump lying in the bed was much smaller than the lump that Shikamaru's body would make. She was so content in using her 'Wake up frying pan' jutsu on her lazy son that she failed to realize the difference. "Shika-chan, wake up, it's time for breakfast," Yoshino whispered to the sleeping lump and only got soft, incoherent grumblings in return, she smirked, knowing just as well what would come next. She readied the frying pan and brought it down on the sleeping lump just as her husband came walking into the room. 

 

"Yoshino, have you seen Shikajin? He's not in his ro-" Shikaku came in just in time to see Shikajin jump up from under the covers, crying and holding his head in pain. "Jin!!" Shikaku quickly went over to the little four year old and gathered him up in his arms, he gave Yoshino an angry look. "Yoshino, what have I told you about using that damn frying pan on my kids? Fist you go after me and Shikamaru, and now you're going after little Jin? Haven't you caused enough damage to the two of us without going after him too? He's only four, for Kami's sake!" He yelled as he tried to sooth the crying child.

 

Meanwhile, Yoshino was standing there with a shocked expresion on her face. She had been so sure that Shikamaru was laying under the covers that she didn't bother to check first. Now her favoret child was crying in pay, all because of her. "What? No, I...I just..." She looked back to the spot that Shikajin was laying and then back to Shikaku who was still staring her down angrily. She just knew that they would have yet another fight about her use of the frying pan later on, a fight that she knew she was in the wrong for and would surely lose. This made her a little angry inside, it was meant to be Shikamaru laying in the bed, not her favoret son! "What-but I was looking for Shikamaru, I didn't mean to-" She started as she turned back to her husband of thirteen years and tryed to take their youngest son into her arms. But Shikaku didn't let her, this was somehting that they often faught about too, the amount of love that she seemed to give both of her children was not equal. While Shikamaru was the oldest and clan heir, Shikajin was the younest and seemed to have more of his mother's love and support in everything.

 

Shikaku had his suptions on this, especially since Shikajin didn't look very much like him like Shikamaru did, but he still took care of him like a son nonetheless. "Shikamaru's not here," he stated as he turned to leave the room. He had managed to get Jin down from crying to just sniffling, thankfully, but he was sure that he wouldn't want to talk to his mom for a little while. Like all Nara's, Shikajin was smart, maybe not as smart as his older brother was, yet, but smart enough to know who had hurt him so bad. The poor boy was still holding the spot that he was hit by the frying pan, Shikaku could also see a small lump starting to form. He sighed, "come on, buddy, let's go get you something to ease that bruise," Shikajin nodded his head and they started to leave the room.

 

"Wait! Shikaku, please wait," Yoshino stopped them again, a worried look on her face. She knew that if anyone on the council heard about this event, they would probably side with Shikaku on the pending divorce he talked about. Out of anything that she was worried about, she did not want to loose Shikajin in a custady battle. "A-are you g-going to the c-council meeting today?"

 

Shikaku was standing in the doorway of the bed room, he didn't speak for a long time. He knew that Yoshino was worried about someone finding out about this, one of the reason why he hasn't pushed the divorce motion forward was because he thought that his wife would change. Their marriage did not start out well, but over the years, he thought that things were getting better. They even had another child together, even though he had his doubts of Jin being his or not, he turned his head back enough to look at Yoshino. "...Let me know when breakfast is finished," he continued out into the hallway to find the first aid kit.

 

* * *

**Back with Naruto**

 

 **"Congratulations, kit, you did it,"** came the sound of Kyuubi's booming voice.

 

Naruto groggy mind slowly registered the fox's voice and sighed.  _"What did I do?"_  He asked sleepily without opening his eyes or moving from his spot.

 

Kyuubi chuckled,  **"do you remember what I promised you while I was trining you in the forest?"** He asked causually, but he didn't wait for an answer,  **"well, thanks to those two, your new mates, you have unlocked the ability to travel between realms. You should couunt your lucky stars that those two have enough potential to help you achive such a goal."**

Naruto slowly got up from the bed he was laying in and yawned. He didn't need to open his eyes to know that it was morning now,  _"travel?  Where are we going?"_

 

The Kyuubi smirked,  **"from what I can tell, our first stop will have to be the Real of Shadows. I used to go there when I was a kit myself, it's a great place to train, especially now that you have two, possibily three mates backing you. You need to get stronger so that you can take care of them properly, you need to be able to protect them even at your worst when they can't do it themselves. There is also another good thing about the Shadow Realm that I like, would you like to know what that is?"**

 

 _"What's that?"_ Naruto asked as he shealed his eyes from the sunlight coming through Kiba's window.

 

 **"While in that realm, I can slip out of the seal and form a corporial body. In a sense, I would be free, however..."** The fox paused, his voice still sounded happy even though he wasn't trying to show it. **"Even though I would e somewhat free from the seal, I would still be connected to you, and when we leave, I would return to the seal as if nothing had changed. Yet, even so, I relish the thought of those moments,"** Naruto heard the fox give a soft sigh and realized what the Kyuubi was really trying to say. Even though the fox would never admit it in so many words, the blond knew that Kyuubi didn't want to leave him on his own, instead, he just wanted to escape the fate of the seal. Naruto Nodded his head and left to go to the bethroom that was connected to Kiba's room.

  

While Naruto was in the bathroom, Shikamaru and Kiba started to wake up. Koba was the first to noticed his own changes, as all the sounds around him, even the ones in different parts of his house, sounded clearly. Kiba opened his eyes and sat up slowly in, he looked around his now well lit room and noticed that Naruto was no longer laying between him and Shikamaru. He was curious to see where the blond went so early in the morning, not having him laying in the same spot as when they went to sleep make the Inuzuka feel like he was missing something. He felt the need to be close to his blond, so he quickly threw off his covers and set out to find him. As he made his first stop to the bathroom to see if Naruto was in there, he passed by the mirror handing from the back of his closet door. He paused in his steps and reversed to stand in front of the mirror, taking a closer look at himself, he couldn't really believe that this was his reflection staring back at him. The person in the mirror had a slim but chubby face, longish curly brown hair, a slim figure with soft curves and an accentuated waistline. His nails had grown out into dangorus looking claws, his hands were smaller than before, softer too. His skin tone had faded from well-tanned to fair seemingly over night. He was also about and inich or two shorter than he was last night as well. A little shocked by his appearance, Kiba walked up to the mirror and reached out to it, thinking that it had to be some kind of trick of sorts, but when he felt the hard glass of the mirror, he realized that this was indeed his reflection. Without thought, his head snapped to the sound of something moving on the bed, only to see that Shikamaru was also rejoining the world of the living. As for Shikamaru, he had a bit of a headach, kind of, he could deffinetly feel one coming on though. The sleepy Nara sheilded his eyes from the sun pouring in from the window a few feet from the bed. He turned his head to the other side to see if the others were still sleeping, he saw that he was the only one still in bed. He didn't have to look far find Kiba, because he noticed right away looking at him. Or, he thought this was Kiba, because the person he was looking at didn't look very much like the Kiba he went to school with for years now. 

 

"Kiba?" Shikamaru asked as he squinted his eyes to get a better look at the Inuzuka heir. "Is that you?" He crawled to the other side of the bed rather slowly, he noticed, for some reason, his pants felt much too tight on him. That was an odd feeling to have since he's always been on the skinny side, he's never really had any trouble finding clothes that fit him, if anything, he's always been a tad small on his own clothes. Reaching the other side of the bed, Shikamaru walked over to where the Inuzuka was standing, wondering why the other had yet to say anything to him. Instead of greating him with a 'good morning' Kiba simpily gave him a blank, almost awed stare. Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at the otheer boy, "what are you looking at?" He asked when he notices Kiba's eyes drifting south, still not saying a word, "what?" He asked, but didn't get an answer, he was getting weary with Kiba's silence, so he turned to the side where he noticed Kiba looking earlier. He came face to face with a mirror, and in that mirror was a girl was long, curly, silky black hair in a messy pony tail. She had a heart-shapped faces, chubby cheeks, and she was over all somewhat thin, except, of course, for her hips and thighs that looked to be straining against her pants. Shikamaru turned towards the mirror fully, slowly realizing that this girl, was him. Shikamaru could not believe his eyes, he had so many questions, even as he rubbed his eyes, the image stayed the same.

 

He looked like a girl.

 

Was he a girl now?

 

Did sleeping with Naruto do this to him? What about Kiba?

 

Shikamaru quickly turned to Kiba, an urgent look in his eye, "where's Naruto?" He asked, he needed answers, and he needed them now, Kiba shrugged.

 

"Hm, I'm right here," came the sound of the said blond they were looking for. Both Shikamaru and Kiba turned to look at Naruto as he came out of the bathroom casually. Naruto looked between Shikamaru and Kiba, at first, he didn't recognize them. But after closer observation, he could see what had happened. "Oh, I seem so this is what he ment," Naruto muttered to himself as he walked past both of his mates, going around the bed to the other side. 

 

"Huh? What do you mean? Who are you talking about?" Kiba asked, clearly hearing what Naruto said.

 

"Kyuubi, obviously, have you forgotten about him already, Kiba?" Naruto asked in a joking way before turning away from his mates. He looked down at the sleeping bundle at his feet,  _"she must have been really tired to have slept though this noise to easily."_ He thought to himself as he reached down and pulled the covers from over the sleeping girls form, "Hinata, time to wake up."

 

"Hinata? When did she get here?" Kiba asked as both he and Shikamaru walked over to where Naruto was standing just intime to see the girl stire.

 

"Hn? Mornin' already?" Hinata groaned as she sat up lazily and yawned widely, very un like her usual self. It took her brain a few minutes to reboot and load, but when she did, realized where she was and what happened. "Naruto! I-wait, Shikamaru? And Kiba, too?" Hinata slowly got up rfom her makeshift bed, "oh, sorry, for coming in without asking, it was already so late at night that everyone was already sleeping, so I didn't want to make too much noise." She bowed her head respectfully, "I'm sorry for the trouble."

 

"Huh? What, it's okay Hina-chan, I can only assume that Naruto was the one that let you in because I was already dead asleep, I think. I didn't hear a thing all night," Kiba said with a blush on his cheeks as he scratched the back of his neck. 

 

It was then that Shikamaru noticed the doughle bag sitting in the corner near the bed, "What's with the bag? Where you heading somewhere last night?" He aslo noticed her training clothes, but didn't say anything about them since the answer would most-likely lie in her explination.

 

"Bag? Oh, right! I was, um, well I was actually heading somewhere last night, that is until Naruto caught up to me and brought me here." HInata explained, "well, actually, I say he did, but it was actually a clone of his that met up with me."

 

"Met up with? So what? Where you two planning on coming here last night or what?" Kiba asked, eyeing Naruto susptiously.

 

"Oh, no, I wouldn't say that we planned anything at all." Hinata defended, she paused to choose her next words carefully, "actually, if I'm going to be honest, I would have to say that I...I was runing away." She explained, a little embarrassed by it, she looked to Naruto for his reaction, not sure if she should tell them or not.

 

"Running a way from what?" Shikamaru asked.

 

"Wait, hold on," Kiba step forward, placing a hand on her shoulder, "Hinata. Are you in some kind of trouble something?"

 

Hinata shook her head and waved her hands, "no, no, no, I am not in trouble. Well, no, actually, I think I might be now, but before I wasn't."

 

"Wha?" Kiba asked confuse, "what is that supposed to mean?"

 

"It's not important right now, Kiba, she can explain it later." Naruto stated as he walked over to the corner of the room and picked up Hinata's back before tossing it to her, "but for right now, we have more important things to do." He walked over to the window and opened it wide, "come on, we have to get out of here before you mom come's to check on you."

 

"Where are we going?" Kiba asked as he quickly went over to his dresser and started taking out a change of clothes, one for him, and one for Shikamaru. Then he went to grabe his usual training/travel bag to stuff them in inaddition to his usual weapons and some scrolls. On his way back over, he tossed Shikamaru one of his many oversized shirts and some baggy pants, "would you like a change of clothes too, Naruto?"

 

Naruto waved him off, "nah, there's no need to trouble yourself about that. But, if you are going to take some stuff with you, you should deffinetly take some more scrolls and probably some more clothes. We're going to be gone for a while," Kiba nodded his head. Once everyone was ready, Naruto led them through Kiba's window and to the forest, while not being seen by anyone as much as possible.

 

 

* * *

**Training ground 44**

 

 

The group of aspiring genin-to-be arrived at the gates leading to the forest of death with as little trouble as possible. When they arrived, they looked around to see if anyone saw or followed them there, they didn't see anyone, so they entered the training grounds. However, even though they didn't see anyone, some did see them, a woman going by the name of Anko Mitarashi. Anko smirked to herself, "I wonder what these kiddies are going to be doing in my second home? Heehee, I better go find out and make sure that nothing...dangerous happens to them," she chuckled as she followed behind Naruto's group from the shadows.

 

At the same time, Naruto got a heads up from Kyuubi that they were being followed. Pausing suddenly, he looked around the forest,  _"where?"_  

 

**"Behind the third tree to your left."**

 

 

 

* * *

  

 

**The following morning**

 

The next morning, Shikamaru got up to the sound of chirping birds and the smell of bacon and eggs. He sat up and held his head, there was something different about him today.

* * *

 

**Training ground forty-four**

 

Naruto was having a pretty okay day.

 

 

So what was he to do about it? 

 

**To be continued**

 

**Lunchtime**

 

"Uh, right, well, everyone can go have lunch now, you're sensei's will pick you up when you all come back," Iruka stated after Naruto's new look finally sunk in.

 

Naruto got up from his seat and was the first person to walk out of the class since everyone else was too busy staring at him. Shikamaru and Chouji soon followed his lead and left the classroom as well. When they were finally gone, Sakura jumped up and yelled, "why does a dobe like that get to be on Sasuke-kun's team?" She turned to the two sensei that were standing in front of the room, but they were already leaving for themselves. 

 

"Hell if I know, why don't you take it up with the Hokage is you got a problem with it," Mizuki said before he walked out of the room behind Iruka.

 

Meanwhile, Naruto, Shikamaru, and Chouji were looking for someplace to eat. Chouji suggested that they should go to his families restaurant since it was closer to the academy than Ichiraku's. However, their trip there was cut short when a sudden group of villagers came up to confront Naruto. "Huh? What's going on?" Shikamaru asked as he looked around at the crowd."

 

"I don't know, but I don't like the look of this," Chouji said looking around at the angry glares of the villagers.

 

One man stepped forward and pointed at Naruto, "you. How dare you sully the name of this village even further, you no good scumbag!"

 

Shikamaru and Chouji looked at each other confused, "are they talking about us?" Chouji asked, not really understanding what was going on.

 

Shikamaru was getting a really bad feeling at the pit of his stomach, he didn't like the way that things were going at the moment, "I don't think it's us they're talking to, Chouji." He looked at Naruto's back, the blond hadn't said anything since the villagers showed up.  _"What's this all about?"_  He wondered.

 

 

At the same time, Naruto wasn't looking at the crowd as he finished off his bag of chips. He could sense that tensions were getting high in the crowd, sooner or later, someone was sure to attack, the only questions were, who and when.  _"I should get Shikamaru and Chouji way from here, they don't need to see this, but-"_

 

Before Naruto could finish that thought, another villager spoke up. "Look, he's got two clan heirs with him. I bet he's already poisoning their minds with his demonic ways!"

 

"Huh? Troublesome," Shikamaru scratched the back of his head, "hey, guys, I don't know what Naruto did to make all of you this upset, but can you just let him go for now? It's our lunch break an-"

 

Shikamaru was interrupted by another villager, "you see that, the Nara boy's already taking his side over ours! We need to get rid of the problem before it spreads to the rest of the generation!" 

 

"He's right!" Yelled a woman from the crowd, "we should beat the evil out of those two before they get worst!" 

 

The rest of the crowd was in agreement with that option and one person was already making a grab for Shikamaru's arm. But before anyone could touch him, Naruto jumped in the way, he glared at the person that was going to try to hurt his mate, "what the hell do you think you're doing? Don't you dare touch him!" 

 

"You demon brat!!" Yelled the first guy as he smashed a glass bottle he had been holding on the wall next to him. With his new weapon, the man ran towards Naruto, but the blond didn't move, he couldn't. The crowd was blocking any visible exit that he could take to get away from them. In seconds, the man reached him and stabbed him with the broken end of the bottle. The glass shades dug in deep into the fabric of his trench coat before breaking through it and drawing blood. Naruto did his best to use his body to shield Shikamaru from the attack since the villagers were mostly focused on him anyway, they already forgot about Chouji as they started to gather around Naruto and Shikamaru more. Soon attacks rained down from the heavens as the real demons appeared before them in broad daylight, and without shame or guilt, they stabbed at Naruto's back and sides with any sharp object they could get their hands on. They ripped apart Naruto's outfit, not as bad as that ANBU did to his orange outfit, it could still be repaired to some extent, but he could think about that later. For now, all he could focus on was keeping Shikamaru away from the villager's rath, as he did so, Shikamaru found himself unable to d anything but to stare in shock at the villager's actions. One man stabbed a sword into Naruto's shoulder blade, digging deep and spilling blood on the street. A woman sliced a knife diagonally down the blond's back, exposing more of his scared and bloodied skin. "Get him away from the boy! Don't let the innocent be tainted further!" Someone ordered as the brutal torture got more intense, two men grabbed Naruto's shoulders, making sure to cause more pain to his injured one as they lifted him from over Shikamaru's body. Naruto didn't fight them as much as he would have if he was just by himself. Since he was with others of his age group, he just knew that the villagers would set an example for what they should be doing to him. The villagers carried him off in a wave of bodies, away from Shikamaru and Chouji, who had surely been traumatized by the whole ordeal. 

 

When they were no longer surrounded by the angry villagers, Chouji shook himself out of his shock and looked to Shikamaru. "What was all that about?... Are you okay?" He asked, clearly worried about his friend when he didn't snap out of his shock as soon as Chouji did. Chouji got down to Shikamaru's leave and put a hand on his friend's shoulders, he noticed that the other boy was shaking a bit. "Shikamaru?" 

 

"Chouji, Shikamaru!" Chouji looked up to see who called their names, it turned out it was Hinata. The Hyuuga heiress ran over to them and looked around, "are you two alright? I saw the crowd gathering when I saw them carry someone away, I was worried that it was one of you." She explained, she was actually already friends with Chouji and Shikamaru, but they weren't so close to say that they hung out outside of school. When she was around them, she felt like she could be more of herself. She looked down at Shikamaru worriedly, it seemed that he still hadn't broken out of his shock just yet.

 

Chouji noticed this too and shook the boy a little while gently calling his name to see if he could get his attention. Shikamaru gave a start and looked between Chouji and Hinata. "Shikamaru? Are you alright, did they hurt you anywhere?" 

 

Shikamaru's eyes started to water, "they...th-they took him...they took Naruto." His tears began to fall as he shook more and looked down at his hands, "they t-took him and I couldn't do a-an-anything about it." He looked up at his two classmates, "why, why did they do that?" 

 

Hinata shook her head, "I don't know, but I-I think we sh-should go help him!" She said, however, the thought of facing off with that angry mob scared her. 

 

"You mean you want to go up against all those people?" Chouji asked worriedly, "I mean, I'm all for helping out the guy, but there must have been, what? Thirty people involved? I don't want them to turn on me next." 

 

Shikamaru clenched his fist and got to his feet on shaky knees. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm not going to let Naruto face something like that alone. Whatever they're mad at him about, it couldn't really be as bad as they're making it seem." He looked to Chouji and Hinata, a determined look on his face, "you guys can stay here if you want, but I'm going ahead," with that, Shikamaru followed the path that the mob left in.

 

Hinata couldn't allow herself to let one of her classmates, especially one that was actually nice to her, do this alone. She ran off after him, mentally preparing herself for the worst. Chouji looked around, everyone around them was just treating this as a normal, everyday thing, which unsettled him quite a bit. "Oh man, I really hope we don't get in trouble for this later," he thought out loud as he ran after his two friends. By the time the trio found the mob, which didn't seem too hard of a task, just following the noise was easy enough, Naruto had taken a lot of damage. Shikamaru worked his way through the ground to get to the front where Naruto was. When he finally broke through, the sight before him chilled him to his bones, there lay Naruto, face down, in a pool of his own blood while the villagers took turns throwing things at him. His clothes had been torn apart so much that it barely covered him. There were cuts and wounds all over his back that were still spilling blood. Shikamaru could even begin to comprehend how much blood the blond had already spilled, there was so much that the smell filled the air. Chouji and Hinata made their way to the front to stand next to Shikamaru and their worlds were shaken by the sight as well. All around them, the crowd cheered and chanted, but their words were melding together so much that it only sounded like the wild roars of rabid animals. Soon after they arrived, a man departed from the crowd to stand before them as if he was on stage, his clothes, his walk, even the way he held himself screamed that he was a ninja. Of which rank, the trio wasn't sure, he waved his hands at the crowd and they finally started to settle down.

 

"Ladies and gentlemen, I must say that we've done a pretty good job with punishing the demon this time around." The man spoke, with a small shift of the clouds overhead, the sunlight came down to brighten up the shadowed ally way. The light showed that this man, this ninja, was actually an instructor at the academy, which shocked the new genin even more. The ninja then took out a sword that he had been carrying on his back, it was a simple katana, about as long and plain as any other, and just as sharp. He held it up so that some light reflected off of, "but let us make sure that today be our final attempt! With this sword, WE SHALL FINISH WHAT THE YONDIME STARTED!!" The people in the crowd screamed their agreement, cheering the ninja on as he turned around to face Naruto's prone body. He lifted the sword over Naruto, aiming for some vital organs to make sure that the job was done right, "DIE KYUUBI BRAT!!

 

"NOOO!!" Shikamaru and Hinata cried out, Chouji couldn't even make a sound as his eyes relayed everything to his unbelieving brain. 

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None of it made any sense to them...

 

The blade came down fast and everything seemed to go in slow motion. Shikamaru didn't know when he started moving, but he was thankful that he moved. His legs pushed forward, bringing him closer to the ninja. His arms shot out, knocking the man's own arms off course, The blade ended up slicing into Naruto's side, just barely missing the blond's heart in the process. The man backed away from Naruto's body to process what just happened, he looked from the blade to Naruto's body, to Shikamaru and then back again. His face twisted into a sneer at the young Nara, "you idiot! Do you have any idea what you've done?!" The man yelled, Shikamaru froze and looked at the man, not really sure if it had helped kill his new boyfriend or not. He glanced down at Naruto's unmoving form, fear flooding his mind and heart. The man stepped to Shikamaru, intending to cause him arm for interfering, but was blocked by Chouji and Hinata. The crowd around them was getting restless, they wanted the blond dead, but the genin had no idea why they barely had any time to think about it when they started throwing things at them as well. Rocks, knives, kunai's, shoes, trash, anything they could get their hands on really. "It looks like these three have become demon sympathizers, let's teach them a lesson!" The man yelled and the crowd screamed their approval, as they were closing in on them, someone finally showed up to stop the madness.

 

"What the hell do you people think you're doing?!" Everyone turned around to confront the intruder that was interrupting them from their 'rights justice', only to find Hiruzen Saurtobi standing there with a small army of ANBU.

 

"Lord Hokage! We were just-" one villager started to explain, but Hiruzen cut them off.

 

"Silence, I see that none among you have learned from your past mistakes," Hiruzen said as he stepped towards the crowd. He released some killing intent as he looked at all the faces before him, "what a shame it had to be the same group of people from last time too." He lifted a hand to his ANBU guards, "take them all to the T&I, I'm sure Ibiki would love to have some new toys to play with. Once he's done, make sure that he sends all of his findings to me directly and make sure to take care of Uzumaki as always."

 

"Yes, Sir!" The ANBU vanished and started rounding up the now frightened villagers. Everyone in the village knew how scary T&I could be, so no one was willing to become a prisoner there. 

 

Hiruzen turned to go back to his office when one ANBU with a lion masked appeared in front of him. "Hm? Is there something wrong, Lion?"

 

The ANBU bowed respectively to his village leader, "Sir, it seems that the injuries they managed to inflict before we got here are worst than the last. I think it might be the worst they have ever been."

 

"What, do you think he might actually die from them?" Hiruzen asked worry etched into his aged face.

 

"I don't know. One more thing, we found three academy students among the crowd, what would you like us to do with them?" Lion asked.

 

"Academy students?" Hiruzen asked as he looked back at the crowd, sure enough, there were three academy students to be seen. However, these were no ordinary students, they were the heirs and heiress or the Nara, Akamichi, and Hyuuga clans, respectively. "I see," he turned back to Lion, "see what they know and then bring them to my office with your report."

 

"Yes, Sir," Lion bowed again as Hiruzen walked away from the ally.

 

* * *

 

**Hokage's office (later that day)**

 

 

Shikamaru, Hinata, and Chouji now sat uncomfortably still on the couch in the Hokage's office. Hiruzen took the couch opposite of them, gauging their expressions. It was clear to him that they weren't apart of the display of inhumanity that the villagers put on not one hour ago. He sat there in his seat with his pip in his hand as he took in of its contents, he thought about what he would say for a second before letting out a thin line of smoke. "Shikamaru, you seem to have been affected very deeply by this recent event. As I'm sure you all have been, however, you seem to be feeling it on a deeper level." The aged kage explained, "could you care to talk about it? I can promise you that I will not judge your reasons, no matter what they may be." The kage observed the tenseness in the Nara's shoulders slowly loosen, not completely, but enough to seem more at ease.

 

"I...w-we..." Shikamaru started after a long moment of silence, he clenched his hands in the fabric of his pants. He didn't know how to explain, from what their kage had said, it seemed like he had noticed Shikamaru's anxiety.  _"If that's the case, then...I guess there's no point in lying."_ He sighed,  _"this is going to get troublesome,"_ he took in a deep breath and said the first thing that came to mind. It was only two simple words, two words so simple, they seemed harmless, yet at the same time, it rang loudly in the large office.

 

"We're dating..."

 

The others stared at Shikamaru. Chouji in surprise, Hinata in surprise and a bit of shock. And Hiruzen, he staired in thought. "...Do you mind telling me how long?"

 

Shikamaru's cheeks flushed slightly, "s-s-since y-yesterday, s-sir..." He looked down at his hands, "are you going to tell my dad about this?"

 

Hiruzedn puffed on his pip for a few moments.  _"Even though our shinobi and kunoichis are free to love and marry whoever they so wish nowadays, clan heirs and heiress'  love by a different set of laws and rules that govern their clans. Each individual clans do have their allowances, although, once an heir is married, a child is expected to be birth to them. The last time I checked, clans like the Naras, Akamichis, Abarames, Inuzukas clan were allowing same-sex marriages, while the Hyuugas, and the once Uchihas clans would rather keep things traditional, going so far as to arrange marriages from birth. But at least the Yamanaka and the Kurama clan aren't as strict as those two on the matter."_ The Sarutobi looked out the window as he thought, "Hinata, what do you think about this? I got the feeling that you also harbored feelings for young Uzumaki as well, do you not?"

 

Hinata blushed a bit from the Kage's words, "i-i-i d-di-did, o-o-or I-I-I d-d-do." She gulped down her fears and looked down at the floor between the two couches, "w-when I-I was younger, I did have a crush o-on Na-Naruto b-because h-h-he s-saved m-me once. B-b-but I t-t-think i-it  would be okay i-if it wasn't m-me h-h-he l-loved back..." She poked her finger together nervously, "s-s-so I-I-I d-don't m-m-mi-mind i-if N-Naruto's g-gay..." Her face was red from blushing, not to mention that yesterday's memory was coming back to the very front of her mind in full force. Remembering everything that happened made her feel a little light-headed, some steam rose from the collar of her jacket and she covered her face to hide her embarrassment. 

 

"Uh? Hinata, are yo-" Shikamaru started before Hinata shot up from her seat, her face tomato red.

 

"I'M SORRY!!" She yelled at seemingly no one.

 

Hiruzen was a little curious to what was going on with her, "Hinata, there's no need to apologize for-"

 

"No! Not for today, for yesterday!" Hinata shouted before turning to Shikamaru and getting down on her hands and knees in front of him, "I'm sorry!"

 

Shikamaru was very confused now, much like everyone else in the room. Even the ANBU that were in hiding were wondering what was going on with the blushing girl.  "Why are you apologizing so much Hinata?" Chouji asked, did you do something wrong?" 

 

Hinata looked up at Chouji, "yes! I-I mean no!! Uh, uhm..." her mind was so flustered that she couldn't think straight.

 

"Whoa, whoa, Hinata, it's okay, just tell us what happened, okay?" Shikamaru stated, trying to get the girl to calm down. And also get up from the floor, it made him feel uncomfortable.

 

"U-uh, right, w-well, y-yester, a-after the genin exams, I s-s-saw...I saw," she shook as her face got redder. If possible, she bowed her head back down to the ground so fast that she almost knocked herself out. "I'm sorry, I saw everything!"

 

Shikamaru was still drawing a blank on what she was talking about, "saw what?"

 

Hinata looked back up at Shikamaru, there was no a red mark on her forehead, even though you could barely tell since her face was so red already. She also had some tears in her eyes, "I saw it all. Everything, from start to finish! When Naruto had you pinned against that tree and when you-

 

By this point, Shikamaru was finally putting the pieces together and his face was about as red as Hinata's. Now he wished that he didn't have her explain the tail for everyone to hear. Thankfully it was only the Hokage and Chouji that was actively listening- _"oh wait, there are always ANBU in here...I think I'm ready to die now..."_ he thought as Hinata continued to talk.

 

-to the point when he carried you home on his back!" She bowed her head down again with another thump to the floor and continued, "I knew back then that I should have walked away way before then, but I couldn't help myself and watched the whole thing."

 

The room was about as quiet as a ghost town by the time that Hinata finished speaking.

 

Hiruzen couched to clear his throat, his face was a little red. "Right, well, Hinata, I didn't think we needed to actually all that detail about, uh, Shikamaru's and Naruto's..." He coughed again, "alright, well then, since it we've got that...explanation, I think it would be best if we move on to more pressing matters."

 

"Please..." Shikamaru whispered to himself as he couldn't find the strength to look at anyone. While Chouji was looking at his Naruto in a whole new light.

 

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**The hospital (even later that day)**

 

Naruto opened his eyes to look up at the white ceiling of his hospital room. He had been here enough times to know where he was just by looking up at the ceiling before looking at the rest of the room. He stared up at the ceiling for a long time, not saying anything, not thinking anything. He was so quiet for so long that the Kyuubi was starting to wonder if the villagers had managed to damage his vocal cords to the point that it would no longer work even when healed. The fox was about to say something when Naruto finally spoke, "Kyuubi...I want...want them to suffer. I want them all to suffer." His voice was cold and unfeeling, not at all like how he usually sounded at all.

 

In his cage, the fox smiled an evil smile,  **"trust me, kit, there is always a way to do anything if you put your mind to it...And I've had my mind on it for many, many years now."**

 

Naruto blinked up at the ceiling before slowly getting up from the bed. He didn't feel any real pain, only the dull aching feeling that he always got when Kyuubi healed him. He guessed that he must have had a couple of broken ribs from the attack because his sides were sorer than the rest of his body. Looking around him, he saw that he was hooked up to different tubs, drips, and monitors, he ripped off each needled from his arms and the tap from his chest before getting off the bed. Standing on his own two feet, he felt the full force of Kyuubi's work, aside from his ribs, his back, knees, ankles, and his left foot were aching like hell. He could feel where some fractures and breaks in his bones used to be, he could feel the pulling of his regenerated skin still moving into place after being torn apart. He could feel the strain that his knees had gone through during the beating, he almost sure that if the mob that carried him away hadn't stopped beating him with blunt objects, he would have surely been crippled from the neck down. Naruto breath in a deep breath of air and let it out long and slow, "my body is killing me, but I won't stop. Not until they know my pain..." Naruto turned around to face one of the windows in the room, he walked over to it, unlocked the latch, and lifted the glass from its usual position until it locked into place. A soft breeze came through the now open window, along with it came all the familiar smells of the village that Naruto used to love as a child. 

 

When he still had hope for this place...

 

Stepping onto the window ceil, Naruto looked out at the nearby buildings. He didn't know how long it had been since the attack, but it didn't care. The only thing on his mind at the moment was getting out of the hospital. So he did. He jumped out of the window onto the rooftop of a nearby building, once there, he started walking to the other end. He picked up his pace with each step until he was running, faster and faster as if he were being chased by something. At the edge of the building, he jumped off and landed onto another building, he repeated this until he was swiftly traveling via rooftop like a yellow blur of movement until he reached the forest area. He made his way over to the spot he had trained in last night, the area was a cave that leads deep within, taking you underground into a cavern of different pathways. It would be easy to get lost in there if you weren't careful, which was why Naruto choose this cave. The cave also had a shallow underground pound, Naruto used that to wash away the smell and feel of the hospital. Once he was clean again, he changed from his hospital clothes into some ninja gear, this time keeping it much simpler with a navy blue long sleeved top with the red swirl on both sides of the shoulder, while his pants were plain navy blue ninja pants. He still had another pair of his combat boots stored away and put those on, when he was finally dressed, he looked through his new collection of scrolls to start his training. The first one he went for had to do with chakra control, he figured that would be something useful since he did learn once that chakra control was a ninja's greatest ally or something like that. 

 

While Naruto started with the first exercise, tree walking, Kyuubi made a move of his own.  _ **"Since this kit is serious, I think I should make sure that his potential doesn't go to waste. If this village wants to use us as weapons, then I'll make sure that he's no ordinary tool..."**_ The foxes chakra started to filter out into the seal that kept him locked away, but instead of trying to break out of it, he used the seal to his advantage. When the Yondime first place the seal, he was aiming to have Naruto absorbed the Kyuubi's chakra and use it as if it were his own. However, Kyuubi saw right through that plan which would have erased himself from existence, although, with that said, there was a small flaw in Minato's plans. From the formula that the former Hokage had used before his death, the Kyuubi could still bend and twist to its own advantage. Instead widdling away into nothingness, Kyuubi made it so that his chakra melded with Naruto's very DNA, changing him from within and without killing itself in the process. While he was changing Naruto's DNA, it found out a few things:

  1. Because of the changes the Kyuubi already made to the blond's genetics, he found that the boy was already in possession of the Nara clan's shadow possession jutsu.
  2. Naruto already had two bloodlines of his own, (1) The Renigone, and (2) The Harashin. But, because of the seal that was placed on him, both those bloodlines were locked.
  3. Naruto had a very high affinity for fire and wind elements, and low earth elements. There were also two their elements, water, and lightning, that was even lower than his earth element.
  4. And lastly, both the Uzumaki and Namikaza clan DNA he found had high percentages for multiple birthers, but it was undetermined if that would carry over to Naruto himself.



Knowing all of this now gave the Kyuubi a few ideas. First, it amplified his lightning abilities a bit since it was the only other one other than the fire that his chakra was able to touch. Second, it unlocked both of Naruto's bloodline abilities, Kyuubi had seen the Renigone in action a few times in his youth to know how it worked. It had only recently been able to witness the Harashin's abilities before the Yondime's death. What it didn't know at the time was that it had been a bloodline and not just some jutsu that the blonde idiot had come up with on the fly, although, it seemed that Minato had only used those tri-prone kunai to direct his bloodline abilities. The next the that the Kyuubi did was to add some more of its own features into the mix, adding more of his instincts and heightened senses would come in handy for the blond. But that wasn't today that all these new additions didn't come with their own Achilles-heel.

 

As Naruto read through the tree walking scroll, he felt some buzzing going on inside of him. He could feel something about himself were changing, but he only brushed it off for now.  _"If the fox is going to do anything to me, it would more than likely to make sure that something like what happened earlier never happened again. I'll ask him about it later though."_

 

* * *

 

**Back at the Hokage Tower**

 

Hiruzen wasn't sure if he should tell Shikamaru, Chouji, and Hinata about that night.

 

At least not yet.

 

Instead, he explained that what happened earlier today has happened before. Many times and mainly to their fellow blond genin. The trio took in every word of his explanation and asked questions that were on their minds. Of course, these were the expected questions " _why do they do it?_ " and " _what did Naruto ever do to them to make them so mad?_ " And of course, there came the age-old question of  _"why Naruto?"_   Sure he could have given them a straight answer, but that would be breaking his own law, he had placed the law so that the younger generation would treat Naruto as a regular person. Even though he's not. Although he wanted to tell them why, the story behind it all, and so on, he couldn't. Not because he didn't think they could handle the truth, he was more afraid that telling them about Naruto's little secret would make them afraid of him, make them think of the blond in the same way that the villagers do. Then Naruto would be back to having no friends again. He didn't want that to happen. Never. So, he played it cool and danced around the truth as best he could, he wasn't sure how long they would take his explanation of "he was just born at the wrong time". It certainly didn't feel like a complete answer to himself, _"then again, maybe this could be a test to see if these three could actually handle the actual truth about what Naruto is or not._ " He thought to himself as he chewed on his pip.

 

In the meantime, Shikamaru, Hinata, and Chouji were all deep in thought. They weren't really buying that the village's hate towards their blond friend was because of coincidence. It didn't give enough reason to the brutality of the villager's attack on Naruto like that.

 

And in broad daylight as well...Something wasn't adding up.

 

Shikamaru looked up at the Hokage,  _" he's not telling us everything, but why? Could the truth really be that bad?"_ He, as well as the other two sitting with him, wondered. 

 

After a few more seconds of silence, the third looked up at the clock in his office, noting the time. He got up, drawing the trio's attention, "well I'm sorry to cut our meeting short, however, don't you three have sensei's to meet?"

 

Shikamaru land the others looked up at the clock as well, "he's right," Chouji answered. He looked back at his fellow genin, "it's been almost two whole hours since we've been here."

 

Hinata gasped, "We were supposed to be back after lunch! Our sensei must be out looking for us right now."

 

"If that's the case, then allow me to take you back to your class to meet your senseis. Its the least I can do for-" Hiruzen started, but Shikamaru spoke up, cutting him off.

 

"My apologies, Sandime-sama, but I would like to see Naruto first before heading back." Shikamaru said as he got to his feet, "he's actually supposed to be on my time along with the Uchiha."

 

Hiruzen nodded his head, he understood Shikamaru's request. Since it seemed like he had the blond was supposedly dating now, nevermind being on the same team, it only stood to reason. "Very well, we'll make a stop by the hospital on our way to the academy."

 

Shikamaru smiled, "thank you Sandime-sama," he bowed respectfully.

 

Hiruzen smirked, "even though you two have only been together for a short time, it looks as though some of Naruto's energy has rubbed off on you." Shikamaru blushed a little at that comment, "although, everyone gather round, let's get to the hospital before it gets too late into the evening."

 

* * *

**Meanwhile, at the Academy**

 

Kakashi Hatake lazily walked up to the classroom door that his students were supposed to be in. He opened the door and took a peek inside, he half expected something to fall on his head as a small way to get him back for being nearly over two hours late in showing. Yet, he felt nothing grace his head when he stepped through the door and walked in. Inside the classroom, he saw some students sitting around, he saw one that he already knew well enough, it was the student that he was supposed to be focusing most of his time and energy one with this group of genin. If they passed, that is.

 

Sasuke Uchiha. The "last of his clan" prodigy and this year's Rookie of the year.

 

Next to him, there was a girl with pink hear that he didn't know trying to get Sasuke to go out on a date with her.

 

On the other side of Sasuke was the Yamanaka heiress, Ino Yamanaka. She was also trying to get a date from the Uchiha prodigy. 

 

However, what Kakashi was not expecting to see was an old friend, Asuma Sarutobi. "Asuma?" Kakashi asked, "what are you doing here? I thought you would have taken your students and left already."

 

Asuma breath out some smoke and looked over to Kakashi, "yeah, I thought so too. But it seems that after lunch, two of the kids that were supposed to be on my team didn't come back, as well as two from yours. I asked around one of the sensei's said that they saw them heading into town for lunch earlier."

 

"But that was two hours ago, wasn't it?" Kakashi asked as he looked up at the clock in the room, it was on time, which confused him a little more.

 

Asuma shrugged his shoulders, "eh, well, I suppose it might make sense since Chouji Akamich was with them. You know what they say about Akamichi's and their food."

 

The copy ninja nodded, "right," he said as he took a seat on the teacher's desk at the front of the room with a sigh. "...So, I guess we'll just have to wait for them to come back then," Kakashi said as he took out his infamous orange book.

 

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**To be continued...**

 

 

 

 


	6. Sweet revenge! Copy ninja of Shame pt. 1

It had gotten rather late in the evening by the time anyone had found Naruto.

 

Why? Because...

 

Hiruzen, Shikamaru, Chouji, and Hinata went to the hospital to see how Naruto was doing. They wanted to know his current condition because of how much blood they saw the blond lying in when they last saw him. They weren't expecting to see him away for at least a few days or so, however, when they got there and asked a nurse to take them to his room, the nurse didn't even realize that Naruto was missing. This made Hiruzen mad, not just because of Naruto's past neglect when he came to the hospital in the past, but because when they arrived, the doctors and nurses were already doing their rounds. How could one injured boy go missing when there were so many people walking around? But, the aged kage had his suppositions that no one had checked up on Naruto since they had checked him into a room under his direct orders. Not to mention that there was an ANBU standing right outside his door who also didn't notice that Naruto was gone until the nurse opened the door for them. Hiruzen was pissed off at the hospital staff and promptly scolded them for their carelessness. Then he sent out a team of ANBU to search for the blond. Shikamaru, Chouji, and Hinata took part in the search as well because, after their meeting with the village leader, they weren't sure if they could trust everyone in the village that was out looking for Naruto, not to hurt him even more.

 

So the three genins didn't go back to the Academy like they were supposed to.

 

Because of this, Asuma, Kakashi, and the other three genins that were still there waiting for their fellow comrades to show up were getting impatient. Sakura made many complaints about it, as did Ino, much to Sasuke's and the jonin's annoyance. So...they decided to join the hunt for Naruto as well. They quickly found Shikamaru, Hinata, and Chouji looking for Naruto and were told that the trio was helping the ANBU look for Naruto. Their reasoned surprised Asuma, and Ino, while Sasuke and Kakashi expressed how little they actually cared about the blond, and Sakura only agreed with whatever Sasuke had to say. Like the true fangirl, she was born to be. Although the trio did not tell them about what was discussed with the Hokage. They did tell them about everything else about the beatings and what was said at the time. This leads to Asuma, Ino, Shikamaru, Hinata, and Chouji to strengthen their search efforts for the 'injured' blond, while Kakashi, Sasuke, and Sasuke milled around as if they had nothing better to do. Then when it was starting to get a little later in the day, Kakashi _finally_ got off his lazy but and joined the search. Seeing as how it was now close to five in the evening and he _really_ had  nothing else to do.

 

So he summoned his mine dog Paw-kun to sniff out the blond. And low and behold, they found Naruto in the forest.

 

Not even two miles away from the academy...

 

By the time that everyone had followed Paw-kun to the spot that Naruto was currently at, Naruto had almost managed to master the tree walking jutsu. He was sitting on the floor resting when everyone showed up before him. Naruto looked up at everyone with mile interest. He raised his hand in greeting, "yo...is there a fire around here or something?" He asked as Shikamaru ran over to him after catching his breath and, doing something that Sakura was already planning on doing when they found him, clocked him over the head with his fist. Shikamaru intended for Naruto to get a bump on his head or something from the hit, but as it seems, the blond was unscathed.

 

"Where have you been all this time? It's been almost an hour and a half since we started looking for you!" Shikamaru while folding his arms.

 

Naruto craned his head up to Shikamaru, "hm? Oh, after getting out of the hospital, I wanted to wash that horrible hospital smell off of me and then I started training." He explained, "why? Where you worried about me or something?"

 

Shikamaru blushed a little, "n-no, I was just trying to make sure that my teammate wasn't bleeding out somewhere after what happened. That's all," he folded his arms and looked away from the blond as he explained, however, the thumping in his chest was making it hard for him to keep a straight face.

 

"Mhmm, there's no need to lie, Shikamaru, I know already know how you feel," Naruto said as he got up from his spot on the ground. While Naruto was practicing the tree waling technique, Kyuubi explained all the changes it had done to his body. From what he had gathered, Kyuubi was making it hard for him to be weak, which he liked very much. The thing about his own bloodlines and the acquisition of new ones appealed to Naruto's curiosity very much, he wanted to see what other bloodlines he could acquire with it. But he didn't want to be seen as greedy or selfish by just collecting a bunch of mates he didn't care for just for their bloodlines. That sounded like something a power-hungry council member would do, especially one from the civilian council. Speaking of the civilian council, Naruto knew he had to be more careful with how he went about this or else he might find himself captured and turned into a real weapon for the village.  _"I'm also going to need a place to stay that will accommodate all of my future mates, so I can't keep living out here in the woods. Even though it seems less troublesome to do so, I wouldn't want to villagers to be able to walk in me when I'm getting it on with one of my mates. Plus, having a house, I can probably set up a lot of security to make sure that my future kids are safe."_

 

Just then Kyuubi decided to share his own thoughts.  **"Oi, kit, I like the way you think, but if I might suggest something, I say you head on over to the old man for a chat. Don't you think it's about time that the village starts paying what is owed to them?"**

 

 _"It does sound like a plan, but we'll have to be careful about_ it... _think we should let him in on our little secret."_

 

 **"Which ones are you talking about?"** Kyuubi smirked, he was liking the blond more and more by the second.

 

 _"You'll have to wait and see..."_ Naruto thought to the fox before tuning in on what everyone else was talking about. It seemed that Asuma was mad at Kakashi for not worrying about Naruto's wellbeing enough since the lazy cyclops was already walking away with Sasuke in tow. 

 

"Seriously Kakashi? Aren't you going to check him for injuries?" Asuma asked as he glared at Kakashi's back.

 

"I should I? He's clearly fine or else he wouldn't be 'training' right now. Anyways, he's wasted enough of all of our time, let's get this thing over with before the sunsets," Kakashi stated as he left the area with Sasuke.

 

Naruto rolled his eyes at the Capy ninja,  _"what a douche bag, although, he seems kind of familiar. Have I met him somewhere before?"_ He wondered to himself as he and Shikamaru followed Kakashi after waving goodbye to Chouji and Hinata. 

 

 **"Hey, kit, I think you should get to know that guy a little better,"** the fox said with a knowing smile.

 

Naruto was curious about what the fox was implying but decided that he might as well do as he suggested. After all, Kakashi was going to be his sensei for who knows how long, he might as well try to make a little effort on the team. Who knows, he might even learn something that was actually useful. Naruto was a little hopeful about it, but deep down inside, he had major doubts about it.

 

* * *

**With Kakashi's team**

 

"Okay, now that everyone is finally here, let's get to know each other, what are your likes, dislikes, hobbies, and future goals?" Kakashi asked his team.

 

"Why don't you go first?" Shikamaru stated as he looked up lazily at the jonin, "I mean, it was your idea and all."

 

"Hm, I guess you have a point, I might as well," Kakashi said as he leaned on the tree behind him, they were in a park close to the village square. Kakashi looked up at the sky and spoke, "my name is Kakashi Hatake, my likes or none of your concerns. My dislikes have nothing to do with any of you, I don't have any hobbies, and...As for my future goals...I guess I never really thought about it." He looked back to Shikamaru, "your turn."

 

Shikamaru sighed, "troublesome, I'm Shikamaru Nara, I like naps, hanging out with my friends, and..." suddenly an image of a naked Naruto appeared in his mind out of nowhere and he looked away from the sensei. He cleared his throat to try and make his voice not crack while he talked, even though his face was almost completely read from the image, "uh, I dislike what the people who blame others for something they didn't do or have no control of. My hobby is cloud watching and naping, and..." he coughed as he was finally able to get his emotions back under his control, "I don't feel like telling you my future goals."

 

"Ah, but that's not how that works, Shikamaru," Kakashi stated with an eye-smile.

 

Shikamaru sent his sensei a glare, "you didn't share your goals with us, why should I share mines with you?"

 

Kakashi raised his hands in surrender and looked to the next person, "Narut-"

 

"Pass," Naruto stated as he laid in the glass with his eyes closed.

 

Kakashi rolled his eyes, "okay then, how about you Sasuke?"

 

"Hn, you already know my name, so let's just get to the point. I don't particularly like anyone or anything. I dislike a lot of things, I don't have hobbies because I don't have time for games. My goal is not a silly little dream like the rest of you, but a reality. I will bring back my clan and I will kill a certain someone." Sasuke said in that dark and mysterious way that only an emo can achieve, "that's all you need to know about me."

 

"Right, and now it's back to you, Naruto," Kakashi said happily. Naruto said nothing, Shikamaru looked to him, wondering what was wrong, after seeing a different side of the blond yesterday, he didn't expect him to start talking about something random like how much he likes ramen or whatever. Still, he didn't expect him to be so quiet either. Kakashi sighed, wondering why the Hokage had placed Naruto on his team, to begin with, he certainly didn't like the boy very much, and he didn't think that he could even teach the blond anything. Not that he was really planning to anyways. "Look Naruto, just tell us a little something about yourself so we can move on to more important things, alright?" Kakashi asked in a lazy tone.

 

Naruto's eyes shot open as he remembered hearing that same voice before. He sat up and looked at the owner of the voice and things started to click into place. Sasuke grunted something about him being a waste or something, but Naruto wasn't listening. His face changed from one of realization to surprise until it settled on a well-hidden anger. If Kakashi noticed the change, he didn't say anything about it as Naruto opened his mouth to speak, "the names Naruto Uzumaki." He started, his arm shot out and pulled Shikamaru close to his side, surprising the Nara boy enough to make him blush, "I like mate, Shikamaru, and his friends Chouji and Hinata are alright with me too. I dislike people that would take out there..." he paused to find the right words, "stress on a child just because it's convenient for them. I also dislike a lot of other things that I don't feel like naming at the moment. My hobbies are also none of your concerns, unless your my closest friends or mates, you don't get to know what kind of information." Naruto tightened his grip around Shikamaru's shoulder as he stared directly into Kakashi's single eye, "as for my future goals...well, they won't be goals for much longer..."

 

Kakashi stared back into Naruto's blues and suddenly felt as if he was about to be attacked by a while animal. He felt as if he was running through the forest like a wounded DEER! But why? He's never felt like this before, not even when he was on his most dangerous mission. The more he looked at Naruto, the closer to death he felt until he heard someone call out his name. The jonin blinked his eye as he came back to reality, "wha-what?"

 

"Are you okay sensei? You look like you've just seen a ghost or something..." Shikamaru commented with a raised eyebrow. He was still firmly placed in Naruto's hold, which he didn't have any complaints about. Well, other than being a little embarrassing to be seen like this in front of their other teammates. 

 

Kakashi shook his head, "no, no, I'm fine. Anyways, let's me up at training ground seven tomorrow at five o'clock sharp. We'll be doing some survival training." He gave them and eye-smile as leaves started to swirl around him, "also, don't eat breakfast, you might throw up. Ja ne!" He disappeared before anyone could ask him anything.

 

Sasuke grunted as he got up, "you must really be a dobe after all, eh, dobe."

 

Naruto helped Shikamaru to his feet as he got up, "you can stop calling me that, there are no fangirls around to flex for." The blond turned to face Sasuke, giving him a neutral look that said 'I don't care what you say'.

 

Sasuke scolded at the look, he hated when he thought people were trying to be better than him. Even if he was the only one that thought of it that way. "How said I needed to flex for those useless fangirls anyways?"

 

"So are you trying to say that you're flexing for Shikamaru then?" Naruto asked as he pulled Shikamaru close to his chest, making the boy blush a little more, "well you can stop that right now, he's taken."

 

Sasuke gave Naruto a look of disgust, "as if, you know what, you're not just a dobe, your an idiot as well. You want to know why?"

 

Naruto shrugged his shoulders, "I'm sure you're going to tell me anyway, so I don't really need to ask, do I?"

 

Sasuke folded his arms and smirked, "I'm glad you know your place, dobe."

 

"Get to the point, Sasuke, you're putting me to sleep," Naruto said with a yawn.

 

"Tsk, fine then, you can't date Shikamaru, you two can't even get married," Sasuke smirked when he saw Shikamaru stiffen and Naruto pause. He chuckled at the two, "oh, that's right, you were kicked out of class on the day we went over the ninja allowances in class last month. Well, since you missed it, let me inform you then. The two of you aren't _allowed_ to get married."

 

Naruto growled at the Uchiha, "and why's that, Teme? Who's going to stop us?" Not that he was really planning on marrying Shikamaru in an official sense, according to Kyuubi, they were already wed as far as demon laws are concerned.

 

Sasuke chuckled, "isn't it obvious? Shikamaru's a Nara, not only that, he's the heir to the Nara  _clan_ , while you're just some clanless loser. You would never be allowed to marry him, a no-named orphan as yourself. It's hopeless really, just like you're chances of actually lasting as a ninja."

 

Shikamaru frowned, he had nearly forgotten about that little claws in his clan's law. Even if he really wanted to, the only way that he would be allowed to marry Naruto would be if he was from a clan of his own. As far as he knew, Naruto didn't have a clan, Shikamaru's frown got deeper,  _"damn it, how could I forget something so simple? I can't believe I got so caught up in the thought that..."_ He couldn't finish the thought and his hand clenched, grasping the fabric of Naruto's shirt as if he was trying to hold onto something that was already slipping away.

 

Naruto could smell the sadness that was coming off od Shikamaru in waves. It made his heart ache and that pissed him off way more than anything the villagers had said or done to him in the past. He turned a glare towards Sasuke so hot that it could have burnt a hole into the Uchiha's very being. But Sasuke didn't seem to care, "that's some pretty smug talk coming from a guy who hasn't even awaken his own bloodline yet." That wiped the smirk off of Sasuke's face real quick, Naruto smirked a bit,  _"looks like I hit a soft spot."_

 

"What was that dobe?" Sasuke asked starting to get defensive.

 

"You heard me,  _Uchiha,_ or maybe I should just call you Sasuke the Civilian, seeing as how you're not really an Uchiha without your Sharingan." Naruto shot back, "I mean really, what kind of Uchiha doesn't have an active Sharingan? Without that, you're nothing more than a well trained civilian with a fancy last name. I bet the only real reason you were allowed to even pass the exam was because the councilors just wanted to make sure that you can start pumping out strong babies sooner." Naruto could tell how upset Sasuke was becoming by his words, it was kind of funny to see him, "then, in that case, you're nothing more than a baby making machine."

 

Sasuke clenched his hands so hard that his nails dug into the palm of his hands. "Oh yeah, since we're talking about the exam, then how the hell did you pass anyway?" The Uchiha shot back, he pointed an accusing finger at the blond, "you're nothing but a dobe! The last in the class! The bottom of the barrel! There's no way you could have passed unless you had help, or you cheated! That's it, isn't it? You must have tricked-"

 

"Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke, it's funny that you think anyone, especially me, actually needed to find a way to cheat on that test." Naruto shook his head, he stroked Shikamaru's head to calm him down and get rid of that sad aura around him. Shikamaru looked up into Naruto's blue eyes, when he did, he saw many things, deep emotions that he couldn't exactly name on the spot, but they were strong. Naruto sighed, "everyone that was watching the fight saw what happened, I won fair and square, no jutsus, on tricks. I trained my ass off to pass that damn test at least three times before now." The look of surprise in Shikamaru's face made Naruto chuckle as he kept petting his head, he wasn't even bothering to look at Sasuke anymore. 

 

"Hn, so you memorized the test, is that it?" Sasuke stated more than asked.

 

"No, you ass," Naruto glanced up at Sasuke and got a quick glimpse of someone hiding on a branch in a tree not too far away. He could tell who it was and smirked as he continued, "the test was a little different every time, but for me, one thing always stayed the same. The last part of the exam, for me, would be to perform the academy three, the most basic or basic jutsus that were said to be  _needed_ to pass. Although they kept saying that, I never saw how that useless clone jutsu could ever be useful in the line of battle, one small swipe and it's gone, like paper in the wind. Instead, I did something different that would help me past."

 

"And what would that be?..." Sasuke asked he was a little curious about what the blond might have done to actually pass the same exam that he had taken about four times now.

 

"Hmm...the rule was, you had to do a transformation, a replacement, and a clone jutsu..." Naruto stated as his hand stopped petting Shikamaru's head. He turned to Sasuke with a knowing look, "and I did."

 

"Huh? Did what?" Sasuke asked.

 

Naruto smirked, "the academy, exactly, and perfectly. And that's all you need to know." He turned away from Sasuke and started walking with Shikamaru's hand in his, "come along, Shika-chan, we're going to see the old man."

 

"The...old man?" Shikamaru asked confused as he allowed Naruto to lead him.

 

"Yep, there are some things we need to discuss with him," Naruto said as he kept on walking.

 

"Hey! Dobe, get back here!" Sasuke yelled at their receding backs, "I'm not done talking to you! Hey! Tsk, damn dobe," he shoved his hands in his pocket and started walking the opposite way to find a way to train.

 

Once the small clearing was empty, Kakashi jumped down from his hiding place and looked at the direction that Naruto and Shikamaru left in.  _"Hmm, I'll need to talk to his teachers to find out what really happened back then. As for the other stuff, I should report to the Hokage..."_ as he turned to find his way to the Hokage's tower, he was slightly startled to see Naruto standing there. "How long have you been standing there?" He asked curiously.

 

Naruto glared up at Kakashi, glaring at him with his deep blue eyes, staring deep within into his soul. "Sleep with one eye open tonight, Hatake...I'll make sure you pay what you're due." Naruto then went up in smoke, showing that he was only a clone.

 

Kakashi was a little startled by that, "was-was that the shadow clone jutsu? How did he learn that? _when_ did he learn that and when did he cast it?" He turned back t the direction that Naruto left in, his one visible eye narrowed, "I need to tell Hokage-sama about this." Without wasting any more time, Kakashi shushined out of the forest.

 

* * *

 

**Hokage Tower-office**

 

 

Hiruzen was reading the report about how his ANBU had found Naruto after nearly an hour and a half of searching. He almost wanted to laugh at how skilled Naruto was at hiding when he didn't want to be found so much so that not even the most skilled ANBU couldn't track him down without a bit of help. However, the reason why he wasn't laughing was because of the situation that had happened before Naruto even disappeared from the hospital. The old man sighed tiredly,  _"if they keep this up much longer, who's to say that Naruto won't turn against the village in the future? If he does, then I say we would deserve every last bit of his rath for what has happened. None more than me for allowing it to get this far."_ The old man thought as he signed off on the report.

 

While Hiruzen was pouring over the rest of his paperwork, he felt a wind start to blow from the center of his office, he looked up in time to see Kakashi appear before him. "Forgive my intrusion, Hokage-sama, but I have some news," the copycat ninja stated as he bowed before the village leader.

 

"Hmm, Kakashi, this must be very important. Anything less and you might have used the door," Hiruzen observed before becoming serious, "what is your news?"

 

"Sir, it seems that somehow, Naruto Uzumaki was able to learn the shadow clone technique. I don't have any idea from where or from whom, but I just witnessed him cast it in the forest," Kakashi reported.

 

"When was this?" Hiruzen asked curiously.

 

"Just now, sir."

 

The Sarutobi thought for a moment, "hm, this could be bad, if he has learned that jutsu from someone in the village, then it's possible that someone might be trying to use the boy for what he holds."

 

"There's more," Kakashi stated, Hiruzen raised an eyebrow so Kakashi continued, "when he cast the jutsu, he was nowhere in sight. What's more, I didn't see when he actually cast the jutsu since he was only talking to Sasuke and Shikamaru at the time. Both of his hands were visible for everyone to see, as well."

 

"Are you saying that he's mastered the jutsu to the point being able to cast it without using any seals at all?" Hiruzen asked, somewhat alarmed by the thought, Kakashi nodded his head once to confirm the kage's thoughts. Hiruzen leaned back in his chair and stroked his beard, "hm...how was he during your test? Did you notice anything different or out of the ordinary about him?"

 

"Uh, actually, I haven't given them the test yet..." Kakashi said.

 

"Hm, I see, wait a minute, you have given them the test yet?!" Hiruzen glared at the lazy ninja, "explain why? You better have a good reason for not giving any of your possible students the actual test when it's still bright as day outside." The old man gave Kakashi a look similar to an angry grandfather that was disappointed in his grandchild's behavior.

 

"Oh, well, you see, when I showed up to pick up my team, I was a little late..." Kakashi stated. Hiruzen hummed, knowing that Kakashi was never just 'a little late' for anything, but let the man continue, "two-thirds of my team wasn't there, so I waited with Asuma because he was also missing parts of his team. After two hours of waiting, we went to go look for them and found out what happened to Naruto, then I used my summons to help in the search."

 

Hiruzen lifted up the mission report on that very event, "says here that you waited quite a while before you helped." Kakashi gave a nervous laugh, Hiruzen leaned his head on his knuckles, "why don't you tell me about what happened after that then."

 

"Right, during the introductions, when I asked Naruto to introduce himself the first time, he passed and I went on Sasuke. The second time around..." Kakashi looked down as he remembered, "it seemed like he was remembering something, don't know what it was. He never shared. Also didn't share much about himself."

 

"Really?" The Sarutobi head was getting more concerned about the blond prankster, "he didn't share anything with your team? Not even a mention of ramen?"

 

Kakashi looked up at Sarutobi, "no, sir. However, he did pull Shikamaru close to him and call him, his 'mate', for some reason. He looked to be very protective of him because he was staring me down as if I might be some sort of threat. From what I witness, I think there was a very big change in him if I were to go off of the profile I was given on him. I might even go as far as to say that he's a different person altogether."

 

"How much different are we talking about, Kakashi?" Hiruzen asked as he leaned over his desk with his fingers laced together.

 

"Very. He's not loud, boisterous, energetic, or even as slow as we may have thought he was. In my opinion, Naruto Uzumaki might be showing a whole new side of him that none of us had expected him to. Either that or..."

 

"The Kyuubi's taking over," Hiruzen finished Kakashi's thoughts for him. The old man looked down at the stacks of papers in front of him, most, if not all, were civilian complaints about the very boy they were talking about. Things ranging from simple, harmless pranks, to vandalism, which was also harmless. In fact, no pranks done by the Uzumaki had been harmful in a way, it was funnier if you really looked at it as a prank. Maybe the vandalism wasn't so funny, but at least it wasn't hurting anyone, but none of the villagers looked at it that way. They hated that Naruto roamed the same streets that they do and they hate the fact that Naruto lived in the same village, let alone even breaths the same air as them. It was a hassle to come to work day after day only to face papers filled with complaints and demanding compensation or public punishment for the blond.  _"Naruto's had a hard life, if he's being taken over by the Kyuubi, then it might be because no one was there to help him strength wise. From what I understood of Minato's notes on the seal, Naruto's will would be what would keep the Kyuubi in check and would keep him from being influenced by the fox. Yet, no one has even once tried to lift the boy's spirits, they only try to break him down, and now look where it's gotten us. We might be facing Kyuubi's rath once more and sooner than what was anticipated. I wish there was a way for me to fix this..."_

 

Just then, there was a knock on the door. Hiruzen looked over to it, "who is it?"

 

There was a bit of a pause before the door was suddenly kicked open by none other than the boy they were talking about. Naruto's kick to the door was so hard that it actually fell apart, splintering into millions of little pieces. When Hiruzen looked at who was at the door, he motioned for his ANBU to stay where they were. The blond stepped into the office and threw a figure off to the far side of the room, when the figure crashed into the wall, then landed on the floor, they were revealed to be none other than the Hokage's secretary. One of the civilians that hated Naruto so much. She looked pretty beat up, she had two black eyes and a busted lip, there were other bruises that were quickly forming all over her visible body parts. The jonin and Kage looked past Naruto through the gaping door frame to see that there were other bodies laying on the floor behind him. They saw Shikamaru come up to Naruto, "they're still alive," Shikamaru assured them as he glanced over to the secretary, then looked at Naruto.

 

"Tsk, she's not dead, don't worry," Naruto sneered at the unmoving woman laying across the room.

 

Kakashi slowly looked back at Hiruzen to see what he would do. He was shocked and so was the kage, both of them decided to play it cool and see why Naruto was here. They wanted to find out why he was there and how he was able to knock out two jonin level ninjas and beat up a secretary. All without making a sound! With this in mind, Hiruzen couldn't help but wonder,  _"what happened to you, Naruto?"_ Hiruzen cleared his throat, "Naruto, Shikamaru, is there a reason why my office no longer has a door and my staff seems to be out of commission for the evening?" He asked calmly.

 

"They wouldn't let me in, I even asked nicely. I was patient, like, really patient with all three of them." Naruto leaned on the door frame with a bord look on his face, "it was really self-defense now that I think about it." 

 

The two adults looked to Shikamaru for more details. "When we got here, Naruto asked her," he pointed to the knocked out woman, "if he could see the Hokage. She told him that you were busy and wouldn't want to see the likes of him anyway. So we waited for a few seconds before she called over those two," he points his thumb behind him at the two knocked out guards in the lobby area, "so that they could escort us out. When Naruto said that it was important, she called him a demon and some other words that weren't every lady-like of her. That was when Naruto gave them a warning that if anyone touched him, he would beat their-uh, butts into next week and, they didn't listen, so...Here we are now."

 

Even with the explanation, both adults were still drawing blanks. They just couldn't see Naruto doing something like that, but for different reasons. Kakashi still thought of Naruto as a useless kid that was put on his team, while Hiruzen thought that the sweet, innocent boy he used to know was still there inside of him. The room was silent and the Uzumaki was getting tired of waiting, "alright, enough of this, I came to see the Hokage and that's what I'm going to do!" Naruto said as he pushed off the wall walked up to Hiruzen's desk.

 

"Well, Naruto, you seem to have everyone's attention now, what can I do for you?" Hiruzen asked.

 

Naruto folded his arms, "I want it to be just us."

 

"Excuse me? Why should you be alone with Hokage-sama after you just-" Kakashi started but the Sarutobi stopped him.

 

"It's alright, Kakashi, you can wait outside."

 

"But-"

 

"I can take care of myself, thank you," Hiruzen stated.

 

Kakashi huffed before taking out a familiar orange book and walked out the door. When Kakashi was out of the room, Hiruzen turned back to Naruto, "now then, w-"

 

"I said just us," Naruto stated with his eyes narrowed, "that means, you, me, and Shikamaru. No one else, and you can put up a barrier too, I don't want any unwanted ears to hear what I have to say." 

 

The kage raised an eyebrow, although, this might not be the most surprising thing he might hear throughout this meeting. "Very well," he signaled for his ANBU to leave the room and then put up a silence seal around the office so that no one could hear them. Once Naruto seemed to be satisfied with this, Hiruzen asked him again, "alright Naruto, it's just the three of us in here now." He said with a serious look, "what is so important that you wanted me to-"

 

"I know..."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"About what?"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**To be continued...**


	7. Sweet revenge! Copy ninja of Shame pt. 2

"What do you know?"

 

Naruto stared at the aged kage for few seconds, reading his face. "I know about the Kyuubi..." he started, Hiruzen stiffened ever so slightly, if you weren't trained, you would have missed the gesture.

 

Shikamaru was a little confused, "well, we did learn about it in the academy, Naruto-"

 

"Not that story, Shikamaru," Naruto cut in, "that's only a lie told to the kids of our generation. I know the truth."

 

"A lie?" Shikamaru couldn't believe his ears, he looked to the Hokage, the way the old man stared at Naruto with a tense expression was enough to let him know that he wasn't lying. He looked back to Naruto, "what are you talking about?"

 

"Naruto," Hiruzen said calmly, "what has  _he_ told you?" Naruto stayed silent.

 

Shikamaru was even more confused,  _"_ _who are they talking about?"_ He wondered.

 

Naruto decided to take a seat in one of the visitor's chairs, propping his feet up on Hiruzen's desk, "have a seat Shikamaru, it's story time." He said while keeping his eyes Shikamaru could sense the tension in the air get thicker by the minute. Shikamaru took a seat in the other visitor's chair next to Naruto and waited for the blond to start filling in the blanks. Naruto took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, "that night that the Kyuubi attacked, I was born. My mother was the previous holder of the Kyuubi, while she was carrying me, her seal became weak, so while I was being born, there was a seal master present to keep the nine tails in. However, that wasn't how the Kyuubi escaped," he explained, he could already see the wheels turning inside Shikamaru's head. Naruto had no doubt that he would put all the right piece together as the story unfolds, he continued, "I was born safe and sound, the nine tails didn't escape because of the seal master's skills, so everything was fine. But, it didn't stay that way. From what I gathered, there was a masked man there-" this got Hiruzen's attention "-that came in just as I was being taken away to have a checkup. The man killed both the doctor and the women helping my mother before he took me as a hostage. The seal master had a choice, save his wife, or save his child, and he chooses me. Once I was safe, he left to find his wife, my mother, but by the time he got there, the Kyuubi was already ripped from her stomach and placed under a genjutsu."

 

"What! A genjutsu?" Hiruzen asked, so far, everything in the story was lining up perfectly with the events of that night. The only thing that the kage couldn't wrap his head around was the genjutsu part. Who could have the power to place the Kyuubi, the strongest of the tailed beast, and the rumored ruler of the demon underworld?  _"If the Kyuubi really was placed under a genjutsu. then that would mean that an Uchiha really did cause the death of almost half the village populations. With their Sharingan, they would have the skill and ability to control the Kyuubi and cause untold amounts of destruction. And after all these years of trying to find a way to prove them innocent..."_ Hiruzen clenched his hands as he thought about how he was wrong about the Uchiha's innocence after all. 

 

"That's right," Naruto continued. "The person to control the Kyuubi was an Uchiha, by blood too. But it wasn't one from the village."

 

Hiruzen lifted his head, it was like Naruto was reading his mind, "if that's the case, then who? The only Uchiha's that were around at that time that night were all living in the village. They ran the Military Police Unite, their crest  _was_ the Military Police symbol!"

 

Naruto nodded his head, "that is true, but this Uchiha so happened to have a name that was the same as one of the founders of the village."

 

The lights turned on in the Sarutobi's head, "Madara Uchiha...but, are you saying that this man was named after Madara Uchiha?" He asked curiously.

 

Naruto shook his head, "no, Kyuubi said that it was him. The same Madara from that time. He's still alive somehow."

 

"Wait, wait, wait, hold on a minute," Shikamaru spoke up, gaining the two's attention. He sighed, "look, I'm not exactly sure what you're talking about, to be exact. Naruto, you're saying that your mother was the Kyuubi's container before you were born, right?" Naruto nodded, "and you're also saying that when you were born, someone wearing a masked, going by the name Madara Uchiha, attacked you guys, took you hostage in order to release the Kyuubi." Naruto nodded again, "and you're also saying that that Madara and the Madara who founded the village with the Shodime, is really one and the same guy?" Another nod, Shikamaru shook his head, "I don't see how that's even possible. If both are the same, then the guy would have to be ancient! And I know for a fact that, even as a ninja, it would be kind of hard to execute a plan like that on your own."

 

"Yes, I agree," Hiruzen nodded, "even if what you say is true, Naruto, the Madara from that time would be much older than me. We all know that a ninja's life expectancy is short, especially back in those days, I just don't see how that Madara could be the same guy."

 

Naruto thought about that,  _"they do have a point. The history of this village is quite long, for a ninja to actually live so long seems impossible. Hmm...Kyuubi, are you sure it's the same guy?"_

 

Kyuubi growled in his mind,  **"of course I'm sure, kit, my nose has never lied to me yet. Even though I will agree that what the old man says is true, I know that smell. It's the same smell of the blasted Madara Uchiha who used me to fight that Senju long ago. And I know it's the same Madara that hid behind that orange mask and used his Sharingan on me a second time. I will NEVER forget!"**

 

"Hm...he says it's the same smell, but how can that be?" Naruto mumbled to himself.

 

"What was that Naruto?" Hiruzen asked, "were... were you just talking to the Kyuubi just now?"

 

Shikamaru looked from Hiruzen to Naruto, then Naruto's stomach, Naruto nodded, "yes. And he's pretty pissed off about that Madara guy, he wants his revenge on him as soon as possible, but since he's sealed inside of me, he can't exactly carry out his plans."

 

"So, you can talk to the Kyuubi?" Hiruzen asked, worrying if it was too late to save the blond.

 

"Yes. However, we've made a deal." Naruto stated as he leaned back on his chairs, making it tilt and stand on its two back legs while he used his foot to rock it gently. 

 

"What kind of deal?" Shikamaru asked, he was wary of the Kyuubi, but he knew that Naruto wouldn't be taken over so easily.

 

Or at least he hoped so.

 

"Oh, you know, the kind of deal where he pretty much lets me use his chakra when I really need and teachers me just about everything he knows. In return, I have to either help him get revenge on Madara, this village, or maybe a little of both. I wasn't really paying that much attention while he was talking since I fell off the tree when he got to that part." Naruto explained as he leaned his head back and closed his eyes.

 

Hiruzen and Shikamaru shared a look, "so, which one are you going to choose?" Shikamaru asked.

 

"Hm...I chose the fourth option," Naruto said.

 

"Which would be to..." Hiruzen prompted.

 

Naruto rocked on the back legs of the chairs for a few moments more before setting it down on all four legs again. He looked Hiruzen in the eyes, "here's the deal. All you ever wanted was to keep the village safe, right?"

 

"Uh, yes, that's right," Hiruzen nodded.

 

"Good." Naruto nodded, "and all I ever wanted was the simple stuff. You know a safe place to stay. A warm bed. Close that I didn't have to steal. Food that wasn't poisoned or came from the trash. Friends. Oh yeah, and to live in a village where I don't get beaten, raped, cussed out, and hunted almost every night. You know, the simple stuff that everyone wants." The blond chuckled a little as he counted on his fingers, "but I never got any of that, you know why?" He asked, "because of Madara. The villager's too, mostly the villagers by this point, but you know what I mean," he answered himself, "so I understand the Kyuubi's want to get revenge. So here's what I'm offering you in return for not turning into the very monster that the villagers accuse me of being for all of my life."

 

Hiruzen felt a chill run down his back as he listened to Naruto point off things from his past. He reached into his drawer and took out a pen and some paper. "I can't apologize enough for what the villagers have done to you if I could t-"

 

"No, stop, just write." Naruto said with a yawn, "so, first things, first. I know I used to have a mother, I know that she came from a place called Uzushio, I know that the Uzumaki clan lived there. And I know that while Uzushio was allied to Konoha, they were attacked and sent for help, but didn't receive any help from Konoha. Even after they sent their princess to be the first holder of the Kyuubi and then sent her great niece to be the second. Whoso happened to be my mother, which happens to make me the  _last and only heir_ of the Uzumaki clan."

 

Shikamaru was blown away by the revelation, "how come no one knew you were an heir? Or had a clan?" He asked wondered out loud.

 

"Oh, Hiruzen knew, who's clan symbol do you think is sew into each and every ninja garment in the village??" Naruto asked as he looked at Shikamaru, "he also made sure that the sample hung off of some of the shops that were founded by Uzumaki merchants that used to come to the village before they were wiped out. I guess he wanted people to remember what they lost, didn't you?" He looked back at Hiruzen, "the only problem with that method was that anything that had to do with the Uzumaki clan, other than our symbol, seems to have gone away with the wind. Did you know that the library doesn't hold a wide variety of sealing scrolls to learn from? A small section of scrolls at the very back of the library was all I could find, and of the few, I only found three actual Uzumaki bast learning scrolls on sealing."

 

Hiruzen could feel the third degree as Naruto's eye bord into him, As a kage, he never sweats in the face of negotiations, but Naruto seemed to have turned up the heat with just one look. "Then, what would you like me to do about that?" He asked.

 

Naruto back away from Hiruzen's desk to give the man some space to breathe. "Nothing, I already took all the seal related scrolls from the library last night. But that's not the point that I wanted to make. The real issue here is my status. I've lived a life worse than a beggar because I was forced to protect this village from a fox. For that, I require payment."

 

"You want payment? Like money?" Shikamaru asked.

 

Naruto grinned at the Nara, "no, no, the village would go broke if I asked for actual money, little dear." He said as he petted Shikamaru's head sweet, "instead, I'm asking for my clan back."

 

"But-"

 

"Then you want a CRA?" Hiruzen stated as he made a note of it, "that is something that I can do. Though, it would be a headache when the council finds out."

 

Naruto smiled, "that leads to my next demand," he leaned back in his chair, once more rocking it on its back legs. "For this CRA thing, I will have the freedom to chose who I want for a mate. If anyone is will to join my clan for any political anything, then they will have to play by my rules to get it. My ruling will be final and anything the council says will be null in void. I want a seat on the council and to have all clan related politics handle by me or someone I trust deeply who is knowledgeable. I also want an estate big enough to hold all of my member's and future members, I will have rules about trespassing and all that stuff once the housing is secured. And..." he brought the chair back as far as it would go with his weight on it and thought for a second, "hm, I want to be in charge of security." He put the chair back down on the ground again and looked to the old man that was writing profusely, "did you get all that Jiji?"

 

When the Sarutobi finished writing down everything that Naruto said, he looked at the paper and read it over. "Hm, I think that's everything," he looked at the blond's request closely, "Ithe CRA is still do-able, as well as the housing situation. I checked earlier and found that the villagers had burnt your apartment down a few days ago. My apologies."

 

"It's fine, I'm used to it," Naruto said with a bord look on his face.

 

Hiruzen gave him a sad look and continued, "as far as the council seating goes, seeing how it's only you, you would need someone else to represent your clan. There is a law in place that stats that clan heads would need to be as young as nineteen to twenty-one years of age to actually have a seat. However, in a state of emergency, anyone from the age of eighteen and up will be allowed to have a seat. As for village security, I don't think I can fully allow you to take over that aspect." Naruto frowned, Hiruzen waved his hand, "now, now, don't give me that, you know you just became a genin, right? With that in mind, I can't allow one genin to take over the whole of the village security, no one on the council will vote on it, let alone anyone in the village."

 

"Especially if that genin is me, huh?" Naruto said he scratched his head, "I suppose your right, but how about we make a deal about that too?" 

 

"Oh? What did you have in mind?" Hiruzen got his pen ready to right and Naruto told him his thoughts. In the back of the elder's mind, he could not help but think about his time training Minato to take his place as Hokage.  _"He looks just like his father too, I don't know why anyone else hasn't noticed that much over the years..."_

 

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**A few hours later...**

 

Looking outside, the sun was already setting over the mountains and Kakashi had yet to see the barrier around the office go down. The Coppy-cat ninja was starting to wonder what was really going on in that office. The ANBU that were with him were staring holes in the door while also looking completely relaxed with the situation. Even though he could tell that they weren't. Especially after they all took turns trying to disable the Hokage's sound barrier, every time they got even a foot too close, they were immediately thrown across the room. Quite violently too, it was almost as if some invisible person was standing guard just outside the door, protecting it from them. Another hour passed and some, if not all, of the council members, began to filter into the lobby area looking around curiously at the surroundings. 

 

"What on earth is going on here?" Asked one of the council elders, Hamura, he looked to the secretaries empty desk before turning to Kakashi and the ANBU. "What is the meaning of this? Where is Sarutobi?"

 

Kakashi decided to speak up, even though he would rather not deal with the elders or the council in general. They were all such a pain when it came to politics. Well, the civilian and elders were at lest. "We're sorry for any inconvenience, however, Hokage-sama has been stuck in a meeting recently."

 

"All day?" Koharu, another elder, questioned, "the meeting was supposed to take place almost three hours ago. Not to mention the fact that we've been trying to get a hold of his secretary for just as long. Who could he possibly be having a meeting with that's more important?"

 

"Uh, well..." Kakashi scratched the back of his neck, wondering how he should answer.

 

But, he didn't have to wonder for long, because one of the ANBU, a man wearing a Lion mask, spoke up. "Naruto Uzumaki, Ma'am."

 

Nearly more than half the council recoiled in disgust, while some others had a puzzled look on their face. "Uzumaki?!" Yelled one civilian councilwoman, "what the hell would he need to talk to that demon for?"

 

"And for so long too!!" Added another.

 

Some murmuring went through the gathered crowd as they started to talk badly about the blond. Kakashi didn't really disagree with what they were saying, so he said nothing about it. Shikaku was getting curious about the situation, so he stepped out of the crowd, "Kakashi, how long have they been in the office for?"

 

"Hm, a little under four hours now, I believe," Kakashi answered.

 

"FOUR HOURS!!" The civilians yelled in unison as if that was a crime within itself.

 

Shikaku ignored their behavior and went on with his questioning. "Would you happen to know what they're talking about in there?"

 

"No, Naruto actually demanded that everyone leave the office before he said anything revealing. That includes Hokage-sama's ANBU guard," Kakashi explained.

 

Shikaku though that was a little strange, the Hokage would never leave himself open during a meeting. Or so he had thought before.  _I wonder what they could be talking that's so important..."_ He thought to himself, "are they the only two in there?"

 

"Uh, no, actually, Shikamaru's in there with them," Kakashi stated, he was sure that Shikaku wouldn't like to hear that fact. He knew that almost half the deer and some of his clansmen were killed during the Kyuubi attack. Even though the Nara's were a smart and laid back clan, many of them still held a bit of a grudge towards the fox for its actions. One of the clansmen that were lost that night was Shikaku's younger brother, Shikamaru's uncle, Shikato.

 

As expected, Shikaku's expression became hard, "excuse me? You mean to tell me that my one and only son has been stuck in that room with the demon child for so long?" Kakashi nodded, Shikaku glared at the door, "then why haven't any of you tried to break down the door yet?"

 

Another ANBU, this time with a chicken mask, stood up to speak, "we tried, Nara-sama, but the Hokage's barriers are quite strong. Not only that, there seems to be something reinforcing it. Every time anyone of us gets too close, we're pushed back."

 

"None sense! You guys just aren't trying hard enough," said a councilwoman with pink hair.

 

"We're telling the truth," Lion defended his comrade, Kakashi nodded his head once to back them up. He may not be in ANBU anymore, but he wouldn't allow his ANBU brothers to be accused of not doing their jobs. 

 

"Hmph, if that's the case, then we should just have someone else try to break down the barrier then!" Yelled a councilman.

 

* * *

**Back inside the Hokage office**

 

Hiruzen was actually quite tired after negotiating Naruto's terms and demands for so long. He looked over to see that the sky had darkened, thankfully, they had come to an agreement before it got any darker. From what he gathered from their conversation, Naruto's goal was to rebuild his clan. He wanted the freedom to choose who he would marry for the Clan Restoration Act, he wanted the freedom to marry anyone regardless of their gender. Naruto also wanted the keys to his father's estate, seeing as how Naruto already knew everything about his heritage, Hiruzen could not see the point in keeping it from him along. With that said, Naruto also got all of his parents wealth that they had left for him before they died. Meaning he had both Kushina's inheritance from the Uzumaki clan. Minato's and Kuashina's bank accounts, as well as their secret joint account that they opened under different names. The right to a seat on the council by law, seeing as how the young couple had sort of become an unofficial clan when Naruto was born. And the right to take up a helpful role in the village as the Uzumaki-Namikaza only heir and new clan head.Although, he wasn't allowed to have official control of village security until he at lest became a jonin or a chunin. After all that was said and done, Naruto still insisted that he take over the village security because, while he was a clever prankster, he was also a brilliant observer, and he noticed several big flaws in the thought to be perfect security. Flaws that he used to use to get away with said pranks, but now was using them to his advantage to convince Hiruzen. Hearing about everything that was wrong with the security, Hiruzen found it increasingly hard to deny Naruto's help, however, he also found it scary that a mere genin was able to spot all of these flaws. In fact, it might have been downright alarming if it was the child of anyone else. 

 

Minato was known as a genius after. Brilliant in tactics and battles which won them many victories.

 

Kushina, on the other hand, was like the unknown prodigy of her time. Where Minato lacked, she made up with her own tact and skills.

 

Together, they were like monsters or Gods of war, depending on how you saw them.

 

 _"Now that I think about it, those two might have created a monster of their own. Minato's smarts, Kushina's strength...I wouldn't want to be the enemy standing in his way."_ Hiruzen shivered at the thought before turning away from the window to face the said blond. "Well then, Naruto, you are now the official clan heir and clan head of your own clan, what will be your first move? The first move is always the most important."

 

Naruto yawned, "I'm going to marry my first mate, of course." He stated, "I wouldn't want the council to get any ideas to set me up with girls that they could easily control from the outside."

 

Hiruzen's eyes turned to the sleepy form of Shikamaru, "I'm sure that you know, Shikaku would never actually allow it."

 

Naruto waved him off, "who cares what he thinks. As long as Shikamaru agrees, then the deal is set."

 

Hiruzen nodded and walked back over to his desk. He took out a marriage contract and placed it in front of Naruto, "if that's the case, then all I will need is both of your signatures on this dotted line."

 

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "that simple, huh?" He asked as he took hold of the pen Hiruzen offered.

 

"Wait," Shikamaru stopped him, Naruto looked over to him.

 

"Yeah?" The blond asked, "are you having second thoughts? I could find-"

 

"No, not that." Shikamaru cut him off, he didn't want to hear Naruto say that he would someone else to sign the contract with. The thought alone was a stab to the heart, he sighed, trying to clear his mind. "No, don't we need someone to witness this?"

 

Hiruzen nodded, "right again, Shikamaru. But seeing as how this will mostly be for an official record, I can always  I have you two sign another one when we can find someone to be a witness to the signing." He turned back to the window, "it's already getting fairly late, I doubt we will find someone to be a witness at this hour."

 

"Hm," Naruto took up the pen and signed his name, his full name.  _Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze._ It felt a little weird to see another last name added onto his own, most of the time, he always thought of himself as just Naruto. He never thought about the Uzumaki part of his name because he never knew it was actually relevant to him other than showing that he used to have parents. Ones that weren't there. He slid the contract over to Shikamaru, "don't worry about the witness, Shikamaru, there have been a pare of unwelcomed eyes staring at us the entire time we've been here." He stated as he handed Shikamaru the pen.

 

Hiruzen was a little taken aback by what Naruto had said, "what do you mean by that?"

 

Naruto pointed a finger to one of the windows in the office, on the other side of it showed a tree that seemed to be blowing in the wind. "There was a young ANBU that looked to be around our age perched on that branch ever since you put up the barrier. I suspected that it was a new recruit seeing as how his mask wasn't shaped like the usual animal. If I were to guess, he must have seen enough to report back to his superiors about our meeting. Though, I doubt he was able to hear a thing because of the sound barrier."

 

Hiruzen glared at the tree branch outside his office window. "Yes, I suppose you have a point about that." He stated before turning back to the window that showed the Hokage mountain, "I'll have to find that new recruit to see what he knows."

 

Shikamaru read between the lines enough to know that the witness issue was supposedly not an issue anymore. With that in mind, he gripped the pen and signed his name, once he was done, he slid it in front of Hiruzen's desk. Seeing this done, Naruto nodded his head and stood, "now that we're officially married, and the negotiations have been completed, I think it's about time for us to go home."

 

"Yes, I think so, too."Hiruzen reached into his desk to retrieve some keys, which he handed to Naruto, "these keys belonged to the Yondime Hokage. It will open the front door to the Uzumaki-Namikaze mansion he managed to build with Kushina's help during the third ninja world war. It's surrounded by a golden gate that will only open with the blood of the Uzumaki-Namikaze heir. Once inside, I'm sure you'll be able to figure out what you'll be doing from there." 

 

Naruto nodded as he accepted the keys, "no sweat, Jiji-sama, I'll make sure my clan thrives. Even though this village has let me down, they'll be sorry to know that I'm the only one keeping them from being mowed down enemy forces." He smirked and grabbed Shikamaru around his hips once he was standing.

 

Shikamaru sweatdropped, "that doesn't sound very encouraging."

 

"It doesn't need to be encouraging, Shika-chan," Naruto chuckled as he made a hand sign. "I'll be seeing ya, Jiji-sama," as he said that, he was surrounded in a ring of fire that engulfed him in flames. When the flames died down, the two newlyweds were gone.

 

Hiruzen chuckled a bit, "looks like that fox has taught him more in one day that the academy ever tried to in years." He shook his head and sat down in his chair while letting down the sound barrier. He sighed as the peaceful silence that had filled the office before was ruthlessly ripped apart by the council marching in with their noise. Hiruzen took out his pipe and lit its contents, "and how may I help you all on this fine evening?" He asked calmly as he brought his pipe to his mouth for a smoke.

 

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**Later that night**

 

 

Kakashi sighed, he finally managed to make it home after a long day of dealing with Naruto. "I still don't know why Hokage-sama put that brat on my team." Kakashi mumbled to himself as he took off his shoes, "I would have been just fine just having Sasuke as a student, now I have to deal with a lazy Nara and the demon child? Why me?" he continued to mumble to himself as he wormed up his dinner that he got from the convenience store on his way back to his apartment. After he ate, he went to the bathroom for a shower, stripping himself of his clothes along the way. It wasn't like he had anyone there to nag at him for tossing his clothes on the fool anyway. He turned on the shower to hot and got in, letting the water take away all of his stress, the shower worked wonders as it relaxed. He almost didn't want to leave it, but he was getting tired and still had to train his supposed genin tomorrow. "I wonder if I could fail the other two and just have Sasuke to teach? It would be less of a headache without  _him_ there," he wondered out loud as he entered his bedroom. The only thing to cover him up was a towel tied around his waist.

 

"By  _him,_ did you mean, me?" 

 

Kakashi jumped and turned around so fast that he could have gotten whiplash. He looked around his room to see where the voice came from, but he couldn't see anyone there. He couldn't even feel their chakra signature, "was I dreaming?"

 

"Guess again~"

 

Kakashi's muscles tensed up as he felt a hand touch his back. "Who are you," he demanded, trying to keep his voice as calm and even as he could.  _Whoever this has some real skill, I didn't even sense them. I still can't sense their presence, what is going on here? What happened to all the traps I set before leaving this morning?" _

 

The person behind him chuckled, "if you're wondering how I got in, then you should know that you're trapped didn't work on me. You could call me the 'Master of Evasions' or just 'Master' is fine by me," the person laughed again. Kakashi growled, he didn't like not knowing who he was facing. In the second that the person took to laugh, Kakashi moved quickly and tried to strike while the iron was hot. However, the person seemed to be two steps ahead of him and caught his hand the moment he made a move. As soon as Kakashi's hand went to land a hit on the person behind him, he felt nothing but air. Even the feeling of the hand was gone, Kakashi was on high alert now, looking around his bedroom for the intruder. "There's no need to look no further, Kakashi, I'm right here..."

 

 

Kakashi headshot towards the voice once more and this time he saw them, "You..."

 

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**To be continued...**


	8. Sweet revenge! Copy ninja of Shame pt. 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, I have a surprise for you~ ;)

"You...how-"

 

"There's no need to ask how I already told you." The person shook their head as he took a step forward, "but enough about me. Tell me about you."

 

"I won't tell you anything, demon!"

 

Naruto sighed, "just when I thought we could be friends, you wound me so." He held his chest as if he had been shot with an arrow, he laughed, "oh well, looks like we're going to have to do this the hard way after all." He lifted his hand up and the invisible rope that bided Kakashi's hands responded. It broke apart but still held tight at the jonin's wrist, bringing them up above his head, Naruto smirked as he walked over to Kakashi, the jonin glared at the blond with his good eye while keeping the other eye closed. Naruto assumed that that eye was probably no good since it was covered all the time.  _"Or maybe he's hiding something in that eye, I should take care of it before he gets a chance to use it on me,"_ he thought as he prepared for any surprises.

 

As Naruto crossed the room, Kakashi waited for the blond to come closer,  _"that's right, come a little closer. I'll make sure you know your place."_

 

Naruto paused in his casual stroll across the room, then quicker than Kakashi's single eye could follow, he punched him in the stomach. Kakashi wasn't really expecting Naruto to attack him like that, which might explain the surprised look he had on his face at the moment. Naruto's punch left a light bruise on Kakashi's abdomen that would surely darker in time, he doubled over in pain and nearly threw up his dinner from the force. He would have fallen to his knees if it wasn't for the binding on his wrist that kept him standing in place. Kakashi huffed and puffed as he tried to get the air to come back to his lungs, he craned his head upwards to look at the blond's smirking face. Naruto was standing right in front of him now, looking at the bruise he made at the center of Kakashi's abs, the red mark stood up perfectly against Kakashi's untanned skin. He touched the bruise and Kakashi's muscles subconsciously recoiled from the touch.

 

Naruto frowned, "you have soft skin...for a rapist." 

 

Kakashi's eyes widened, he looked at Naruto, "what are you talking about? I-"

 

"Don't play dumb with me, Kakashi Hatake," Naruto said snapping his fingers. The rope around the jonin's wrist became tighter, leaving a visible red mark, "or should I say, ANBU captain, Dog." It wasn't a question, with Kyuubi's heightened sense of smell, Naruto was able to find where Kakashi lived. As for how he knew, well, how could anyone forget the voice of one of their rapist? Especially one that should have had more sense in the situation. 

 

Kakashi knew when he was caught, he frowned at the blond, "how did you find out?"

 

"As I would tell you," Naruto said as he took a step back, he pointed a finger at Kakashi's face and made an X in the air between them. Suddenly Kakashi felt more rope tighten around him in different places, forcing him to his knees, he looked around and couldn't see a single strand.

 

"How are you doing this?" He glared at Naruto.

 

Naruto chuckled, "as I said, I'm not telling you. Now, why don't you be a good boy and keep still, I wouldn't want to mess up the seal." He grinned as he took out a bush and a small pot of ink from his jacket pocket, he made his way behind Kakashi while said jonin tested the strength of his bindings. 

 

 _"Damn, it's strong, who did he learn this from? Was it the fox? Has it finally taken over?"_ Kakashi wondered as he continued to pull against the invisible rope, even as he felt Naruto press the ink-dipped brush at the center of his back. 

 

Naruto just managed to draw a decent looking circle before he got tired of Kakashi's struggling. He heaved a sigh, "you know, you could have a little more dignity and stay still while I do this," he commented as he dipped the brush into the small pot.

 

Kakashi turned his head to the side enough to see the blond, "why should I? What would I get out of letting a de-"

 

"This so-called 'demon you keep referring to has a name. I suggest you use it before I really make this hurt," Naruto stated in a monotone voice as he went back to drawing the seal on Kakashi's back. He glanced up to meet Kakashi's eye, "I'm really trying not to be the thing you think of me, but I will be if you keep pushing my buttons." He then pushed Kakashi's head away with the had he was using to draw so that the copy ninja was facing forward again.

 

Kakashi didn't believe that Naruto had really captured him. In fact, he couldn't believe that this was happening right now.  _"A genjutsu, it has to be, it would explain why this brat's able to do what he's doing right now."_  He thought as he relaxed his muscles and flared his chakra to break the jutsu,  _"KAI!"_  Kakashi opened his eyes to his bedroom, the same way that it always looked. 

 

"That's not going to work, Hatake," Naruto said in a slightly pissed off voice, seeing as how the chakra flair Kakashi just did was reacting to the seal that he was trying to make. It was actually a more complicated seal than a storage seal. Before coming to Kakashi's apartment, Kyuubi had sent the image of the seal to Naruto's mind, the same way it had sent the detailed instructions for the flame shushin Naruto did earlier in Hiruzen's office. As well as other things. When Kakashi flared his chakra just now, it caused the incomplete seal to start glowing a light red color that was starting to burn into Kakashi's skin prematurely. "Damn it, now look what you've done."

 

The jonin grunted under the increasing burning feeling that was radiating from his back. "So, this is a torture seal, huh? You're going to have to do better than th-AAAHH!" The pain from the seal suddenly got worst as it started to rapidly spread throughout his body. He felt like his bones were being broken and burned. He felt as if there was a giant weight that was trying to crush him. He felt like he was being burnt alive at the stake. He felt all of this at once and couldn't contain his outburst, this was way worse than the torture training he had gone through when he was in the early stages of his ANBU career.

 

Naruto frowned,  _"is this supposed to happen, Kyuubi? Will the seal still work now?"_  He thought to the fox as he continued to draw the seal, every time he drew something new on Kakashi's back, the ink would start glowing red like the rest of the seal.

 

Kyuubi observed the scene through Naruto's eyes,  **"hm...yes, but you'll have to speed it or else the little wretch will die. Not that I mind either way."**

 

Naruto redipped the brush into the ink and tried to speed up his work on the seal as Kakashi's screams intensified.  _"It's a good thing that the sound barrier's up,"_ he thought as he focused on drawing the last of the seal. When it was finally done, the whole thing glowed orange and disappeared from sight, but Kakashi still screamed in pain.  _"He's pretty noisy for an ex-ANBU."_

 

At the back of his mind, Kakashi yawned tiredly,  **"just leave him. He'll pass out and wake up sometime tomorrow. After that, you can continue with face two of your plans for him."** Naruto shrugged his shoulders and walked towards the door to the room, he paused long enough to undo Kakashi's bindings. The jonin didn't even seem to notice him leaving as he was too busy writhing in pain on the floor, so Naruto decided to leave the apartment and head back to his new home. He did leave the sound barrier up so that no one came to disturb the process.

 

* * *

 

**Uzumaki-Namikaze Mansion**

 

Naruto made his way back up to the mansion he didn't know he was supposed to have until about an hour ago. The golden gates at the front were almost like a beckon of light in his gray little world, so much so that after he walked out of them for the first time, he almost felt like he was released back into the wild. As funny as that thought might have seemed at first, Naruto found it to be somewhat accurate when he thought back to all the past actions of the villagers. In that case, their actions would be more like wild actions than that of actual, sensible human beings. Pricking his thumb and smearing the blood over the seal that kept the large gate closed, he waited for them to swing open, separating the large golden 'U' and 'N' at the center for him to walk through. He dug out the keys from his pocket as he steps stopped in front of the front doors, unlocking the doors, he saw a large hall before him that held several doors on either side and opened up to an open room. The room held a grand staircase that split halfway up the middle to create an archway leading to the rest of the first floor. Naruto wasn't interested in exploring the house at the moment, instead, he made up the steps to the second floor, took a right down the first hallway and walked all the way to the end to meet up with a closed door. Like the other rooms in the hall, this door was made from a dark oak that was heavy and thick, perfect for when unwanted ears were trying to listen to things they shouldn't while he was on the other side. He didn't bother knocking as his hand reached for the doorknob and pushed inward, he closed the door with a soft click, for a second, he had to marvel at the room. It was a master bedroom that was bigger than his old apartment, a king-sized bed sat in the center of the room with an open canopy. Two night-stands stood on either side of it, on the far right, there was a dresser, next to that was a wardrobe, on the far left was a vanity and chair. A few feet away from that was a door that was slightly opened, there was a light coming from the other side, across from that door was another door that he would check out later. 

 

Naruto took a guess and went over to the slightly open door to confirm his suspicions. peeking through the door, he could see a bathroom that was just as grand as the bedroom. He opened the door wider and got the soft sound of humming. Walking in, he saw Shikamaru soaking in a bathtub big enough to be a hot tub, he smirked, "were you waiting long?"

 

Shikamaru's eyes shot open when he heard Naruto's voice. "Naruto, I didn't hear you come in," he sat upright as the blond walked over. Shikamaru felt a little nervous being in alone in a big house with Naruto, he was still trying to process the fact that they were married now. Just like that, married, living in a big house that was supposedly built by the Fourth Hokage and his wife for their son, which happened to be Naruto. Let's not forget that he's supposedly pregnant with Naruto's child now too, even though he wasn't sure he could ever truly believe that until he started seeing the proof for himself. Still, when Naruto explained to him everything that happened between them in the forest was caused by the Kyuubi helping him find mates, Shikamaru decided to just go with it. After all, what was done, was done, besides, he was already feeling the effects of the...mating when he woke that morning, he didn't think that Naruto would lie about something like that, and to the Hokage of all people, just for a prank. 

 

Naruto took a seat on the edge of the bathtub in front of Shikamaru, "so..." he started, "what are your thoughts?"

 

"Uhm, on what?" Shikamaru asked, looking up into Naruto's deep blue eyes.

 

Naruto shrugged his shoulders, "y'know, this. All of it, I guess?" Shikamaru didn't say anything so Naruto continued, "okay, what do you think about you being pregnant?"

 

"I don't believe it," Shikamaru said the first thing that came to his mind and felt bad. "Uh, well, I'm not saying it's too much of a bad thing, it's good..." he looked down at the water which had, thankfully, filled the air with steam with the heat. "I mean, you've never known your parents, and when you found out about them, it turns out that they were the ones to give you a miserable life. You have the Kyuubi inside of you, the villagers hate you, and it always seems that everyone just wants to see you fail."

 

Naruto leaned forward, he lifted Shikamaru's chin gently, "do you want to see me fail?"

 

"No! I mean, no..." Shikamaru blushed, he didn't mean to sound defensive in any way, but Naruto's soft chuckling put his mind at ease. "I don't want to see you fail, or get hurt, or feel alone anymore...So, if I'm already pregnant, then...I'll do my best to help make your dreams come true."

 

Naruto nodded as he let go of Shikamaru's chin, "well, I guess I don't give you much choice, to begin with. The fact that you want to stay makes me glad that it's you. So in return for you standing by me, I'm going to do anything I can to make you happy. I want to see your dreams come true too, Shikamaru, I want to see our little family become a big one."

 

Shikamaru could feel butterflies fluttering around in his chest when he looked upon Naruto's smile. He blushed a little, "then...then let's do something tomorrow, after training. You know you still owe me a date, right?" 

 

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the Nara, "date? We're already married!" He laughed softly when Shikamaru pouted at him.

 

"The date's supposed to come before the marriage, baka," the Nara folded his arms and turned away from the blond. Pouting, even more, when the blond's laughter got louder.

 

"Alright, alright, fine, one date it is," Naruto said catching his breath.

 

* * *

**The next day-10 o'clock in the morning**

 

"He's late," came the grumpy voice of one Sasuke Uchiha.

 

"Jeez, and I thought I was supposed to be the lazy one in the group," came an equally, if not more, grumpy Shikamaru. 

 

"Oh come on guys, the life of a jonin must be really hectic, let's just give him a few more minutes before we persecute him." This was the voice of a cheerful Naruto, the blond had no problem waiting for Kakashi to show because he didn't care. Also, he knew that with the seal that he drew the Copy Ninja, it would take the jonin a little longer to appear. Kyuubi explained the effects that the seal was supposed to have, with and without Kakashi's sudden chakra flair that night. Needless to say, both scenarios would contribute equally to Kakashi's lateness. With this in mind, Naruto was relaxing quite happily in a nearby tree while his teammate and new wife, were on the ground waiting for their sensei to roll out of bed.

 

Shikamaru turned a glare on Naruto's resting spot in the tree, "why are you so happy! The three of us have been up since almost six this morning waiting. And not all of us were able to get much sleep last night either!" Naruto chuckled at him, making Shikamaru was angry. The reason behind the anger was because, at around two o'clock that morning, Naruto had woken him up to have sex. And not the gentle kind they had in the forest, it was fast and hard, and Shikamaru ended up coming three times before Naruto could cum once. By the time the blond finally let Shikamaru rest again, they had to get up two hours later. Shikamaru was still sore from all the action, so much so that he was limping and having a hard time sitting down properly, while Naruto seemed to be wide away and well rested. For this, Shikamaru was planning to get him back for his loss of sleep. 

 

Naruto sat up and looked down at Shikamaru, "relax, Shika-chan, I said I'll make it up to you late on our date."

 

"You better! Or else, hmph," Shikamaru turned away from Naruto to sit under his own tree.

 

By this point, Sasuke had enough of the newlyweds bickering back and forth, "what's with you two? You're acting like a married couple now," not that he cared, he just wanted the noise to stop.

 

Naruto turned to Sasuke to tease him, "what's the matter Sasuke, you jelly? Are your hands not good enough for you anymore?" He chuckled when he saw the disgusted look on the Uchiha's face.

 

"Suck it, dobe, all I'm saying is stop being so such a dobe." Sasuke shot back, "you should at least pretend that you can make it like a ninja because I can guarantee you won't make it past a day! Matter of fact, I'll give you a fighting chance and make it two hours," he smirked.

 

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the prodigies boldness, "you want to make that a bet, Uchiha?"

 

Sasuke thought about it, "it's not like you have any chance of winning against me either way, so why not. If I win, you go back to the academy."

 

"Seriously Sasuke?" Shikamaru sighed, "you know you're not the one to decide that, our sensei is."

 

"Who asked you, stay out of it, you dick sucking hoe," Sasuke commented.

 

This wiped the smirk off of Naruto's face and he hopped down from his perch, "oi, don't talk to Shikamaru like that. Apologies, now!"

 

"Tch," Sasuke shoved his hands in his pockets, "why should I? He is a desperate hoe if he's willing enough to go out with you."

 

Shikamaru could see the tension building up between the two boys and got to his feet quickly. Or as quickly as a sore bum would allow, to stop the fight before it started. He was not going to get in trouble on their first day as a team, "Naruto, calm down, don't let him get to you. It's fine," he tried.

 

"No, it's not, Shikamaru, someone should have taught this teme some respect a long time ago." Naruto said, he glared right into Sasuke's eyes and cracked his knuckles, "it looks like that person have to be me."

 

Sasuke smirked, "bring it on, done," he got down into a fighting stance. He gestured for Naruto to bring it as he waited to make his first move.

 

"Gladly," Naruto said as he took a step towards the Uchiha.

 

Luckily for them, Naruto sensed some chakra signatures accompanying Kakashi's as they neared the clearing that the trio was in. Naruto turned then decided that he would take his anger out on someone else instead of Sasuke. Before the newcomers could enter the clearing, Naruto disappeared into the surrounding trees so quick he left a trail of what looked like yellow lightning. Inside his cage, the Kyuubi smirked,  **"looks like something fun is about to happen..."**  Out in the real world, Naruto found a spot completely invisible from view where he would still see and hear everything in the clearing. 

 

"Yo, sorry I'm late, everyone, I got lost on the road of life." Kakashi waved to his two genin unimpre-wait, two? "What happened to Naruto? Did he forget the time we're supposed to meet up or something?" The copy ninja asked curiously as the Hokage and a few others entered the area behind him.

 

Shikamaru yawned, "no, he's here, but he ran off somewhere just a second ago." He replied,  _"why the hell is he so late? Isn't that unprofessional behavior for a jonin?"_

 

Kakashi looked around the area, he couldn't sense Naruto, but he could sense Shikamaru and Sasuke, as well as the group that came with him today. But no Naruto,  _"is he really here? This feels like what happened in my dream last night,"_   Kakashi was still in denial of what happened the night before. He thought it best to write it off as a really, really bad nightmare, it wouldn't be the first time he had a weird dream such as that.  _"Even though the pain I felt last night was so real, it couldn't have been. Could it?"_ He heard someone clear their throat next to him, "huh, oh right, okay team, for today's mission, some of the council came to see your potential as future protectors of the leaf village." He gestured to the people next to him, "Hokage-sama, Nara-sama, and Yamanaka-sama decided that they would be the ones to observe your skills in person."

 

Shikaku scanned the clearing, clearly looking for Naruto. "Is Naruto going to come out of hiding before the test? Wouldn't that be considered cheating if he's already got the advantage?" Asked Inoichi curiously.

 

Sasuke scoffed, "if it's that loser, he might as well have all the advantages he can get."

 

Hiruzen said nothing, more content in just watching everything play out before him. The main reason why he was even in the clearing with Inoichi and Shikaku in the first place was that the civilian and some of the shinobi members, of the council were insisting that Naruto should be removed from the ninja forces. After the meeting with Naruto that night, Hiruzen became more and more curious about the blond's skills, seeing as how he wanted to take over the security of the village altogether. He still didn't have a very clear idea of what the blond genin was planning on doing when he finally achieved one of his goals, but he knew he would never get the chance to see the boy's plans through if he went through with the council's request. So, instead, he bargained with them, telling that he and two others would watch over Naruto's team's test with Kakashi for two reasons. One, to see what Naruto was really capable of when he put his mind to it. And two, try to come up with a way to use the results in favor of keeping Naruto as a ninja so he could officially declare him as a clan head to the Uzumaki clan. He had yet to tell anyone what was talked about between him and Naruto, but hopefully, if Naruto's team is able to pass Kakashi's infamous bell test, he could tell the council everything. Plus, he would have two other clan heads as the witness to boot! In theory, it sounded like a perfect plan, so let's hope that it turns that way.  _"The council is always a pain to deal with when it came to political power, so announcing Naruto as a new clan head will surely send them into an uproar once more."_ Hiruzen mentally sighed when he thought of all the extra complaints people will be sending once the news spreads around the village,  _"while my enemy grows stronger, I only grow older. I need to find a successor soon before I'm buried in paperwork."_

 

Meanwhile, from Naruto's hiding place, he listened in to the conversation.  _"Kyuubi, what do you think? The old man's here, along with Shikamaru's dad and one of those guys from the ponytail clan that can read people's minds. Somethings definitely up."_

 

Kyuubi nodded,  **"indeed, I suggest that you take this seriously and use your own skills for this test. I can't really help you more than to tell you where everyone's located. Plus, you already share most of my senses so you should be fine. Just don't try to use any of the jutsu's that I've shown you or else that will attract too much attention from the Nara, I can tell he's already got it out for you. Seeing as you've already taken his son's purity and all."**

 

Naruto frowned,  _"hey, it's not really my fault. You were the one that overwhelmed me with those urges that I've never had before."_

 

**"Whatever, kit, just pay attention, it looks like the cyclops is saying something."**

 

Back in the clearing, Kakashi stepped forward with two bells in hand. "Alright, the goal of this test is simple. Two of you will have to take a bell from being before this timer goes off, if you don't, you'll be tied up to one of those logs and watch me eat lunch in front of you. The one that doesn't get a bell will be sent back to the academy, everyone understands?"

 

"What about Naruto? Shouldn't we wait for him to get back?" Shikamaru asked.

 

Kakashi shrugged his shoulders and tied the two bells to his hip, "he was the one that decided to run off. If I run into him before the timer goes off, I'll make sure to tell him the rules. Oh, and you should come at me with the intent to kill, or else you'll fail..." He looked back to the two genins in the clearing, "okay, if that's all the questions, for now, let's begin, you have three hours...begin!" Both genins jumped away into the forest, or rather, Shikamaru walked away lazily into the forest while Sasuke jumped away. He was still a Nara after all, plus his butt still hurt from earlier so he wasn't planning on doing any jumping. He was also hoping that his father didn't notice the slight limp he had.

 

Too bad for him, his father did notice. And he was already suspicious of a certain blond.

 

Once Kakashi was sure that both of his potential students had managed to mask their chakra signatures to the levels befitting to genin, he decided that he would take out a familiar book from his pocket and began to read it openly. 

 

Inoichi sweatdropped, "should you really be reading that when there are children around?"

 

"What? It's not like they know what this is, so what's the harm?" Kakashi said nonchalantly as he turned the page. Inoichi rolled his eyes, Shikaku tried to scan the area to find out where Naruto was but found that he still couldn't sense him. Hiruzen just watched everything. The clearing was quiet, it felt like the calm before the storm.

 

With Naruto. The blond container had already left his hiding place and was on the move setting up hidden traps in different locations, all while keeping his position hidden from the others. Within about fifteen minutes, he had already covered enough ground that he could easily take a break to plan out his next moves. The way Naruto had decided to go about this was by thinking of Kakashi's test as one of his revenge pranks. He had gotten really good at making those kinds of pranks when he turned seven and was fully able to read and understand bigger words, no thanks to anyone in the village, however, this skill led him to learn about such things as paper bombs. He didn't really understand it at first, but once he did, he chooses to save this hidden skill for a later time when he could properly use it. And NOT get into too much trouble over it. Since this was a genin test, and Kakashi did say to come to him with the intent to kill, so he was obviously asking for Naruto's best.  _"Wait, I better make sure that Shikamaru doesn't get caught in the crossfire, he's my mate after all. His well being is in my hands, especially when since he's pregnant. I better go find him."_  

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**...Three hours later**

 

Training ground seven was now looked like a war-torn battlefield...

 

How?

 

At first glance. Anyone in the village who had looked upon the destruction and carnage would have thought that their beloved Uchiha prodigy and his sensei had made the mess. But they would be wrong. It was Naruto-

 

Yes, Naruto.

 

-And Kakashi who had made the mess. It all started when Naruto found Shikamaru. 

 

**Flashback**

 

_"Hey, Shika-chan, I need to get you to safety before you get hurt," Naruto whispered when he found Shikamaru hiding behind one of the trees further away from the clearing._

 

_Shikamaru jumped a little when he heard Naruto's vice because he hadn't sensed him sneak up on him. Shikamaru turned to the blond with a questioning look on his face, "what is that supposed to me? I can take care of myself, you know," he stated wondering what Naruto had planned._

 

_"Hm, I kind of had a feeling you would say that, well, in that case, you should help me with my plans." Naruto replied as he said as he took a step closer to Shikamaru, he placed his hand on the tree next to Shikamaru's head and leaned in close so he could look over the opposite side of the raven's shoulder. From his point of view, Naruto had a perfect view of most of the clearing where Shikaku, Inoichi, and Hiruzen were standing. However, he noticed that Kakashi wasn't there anymore, "damn, he's already on the move, "we have to-" Naruto stopped what he was saying when he felt a presence not too far away from them, he looked back and glared up into the tree._

 

_"Yo," it was Kakashi, "looks like I was right to assume that I would find you if I just followed Shikamaru's signature first."  The jonin still had his book in his hands as he stared down at them, "since I found you, I might as well tell you that the goal for this test is to-"_

 

_"I already heard everything you said about the test before, get to the point, Cyclops," Naruto said as he turned to face the jonin fully. He stood in front of Shikamaru protectively to make sure that Kakashi didn't try anything that would accidentally hurt Shikamaru in the process._

 

_Kakashi observed this behavior and filed it away for later, "if that's so, then you know that there are only two bells to split between the three of you. I wonder who will get them first and who will go back to the academy." He rubbed the tip of his masked chin as he pretended to be truly interested in the answer, he was still fully betting on Sasuke to win, but after witnessing Naruto's superb hiding skills... Even now, with the blond standing right in front of him, he could only sense Shikamaru's chakra signature. Now Kakashi was having some doubts._

 

_Naruto smirked, "you can keep your stupid bells, Kakashi, I don't need those cheap pieces of metal to prove that I'm a real ninja." He stated as he took out a smoke bomb from his pocket, lifting it up in the air, "I can do that on my own!" He threw the bomb down at the same time that he grabbed Shikamaru's wrist, the bomb exploded in a mushroom cloud of smoke._

 

 _"Jeez, at least show me some respect, gaiki, I'm your superior after all." He sighed, "well, that was a wast of-WHAT!" Kakashi had to quickly jump out of the way as a hail of shuriken and kunai shot out from the cloud of smoke. He took out his own kunai to deflect some of them when he realized that he couldn't dodge them all. Even with that said, there were one or two blades that managed to get past his defenses and cut him.  When the smoke cleared, the Shuriken was revealed to only be clones of the real thing that was mixed in, this realization surprised Kakashi even more,_ "but, Shadow Shuriken is one of the Sandime's signature jutsus. How did he learn it? Has Hokage-sama been tutoring him without anyone knowing?"  _He wondered to himself, "even if that was the case, it won't be enough to pass him. Oh well, time to go see what Sasuke's up to, he was the real reason why I agreed to take this team in the first place anyways."_

 

_Meanwhile, in another part of the forest, Naruto set Shikamaru down. They were now close to the lake that was apart of the training ground, he was thinking up his next moves while Shikamaru said goodbye to any food he had in his stomach before. Naruto said and patted Shikamaru on the back sympathetically, "sorry about that, Shika, I didn't think your stomach would be so sensitive so fast."_

 

_Shikamaru wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, " it's fine...it wasn't like there was anything in it, to begin with." Something that he regretted very much now that the test had finally started._

 

_Naruto took out a scroll from his inner pocket, it was a storage scroll. After he let Shikamaru rest after satisfying his own urges, he left the mansion to sneak into the grocery stores before they began to open for the day. He was able to get away with enough food to stock their refrigerator for about a week until they saved up enough money to actually buy the food themselves. "Here, I made you something to eat this morning, but didn't have a chance to give it to you since you were so grumpy," he explained._

 

_"Didn't Kakashi sensei say not to-" Shikamaru was met with a blank stare from the blond so he sighed, knowing full well that he wasn't believing Kakashi's no eating rule from before either. He accepted the scroll of food, "so, what were you saying about plans earlier?"_

 

_Naruto sat down on the ground next to Shikamaru as the other boy set out the food in front of them. He had packed enough food for three but knew there was a very slim chance that Sasuke would have wanted to join them. But who cares? "I think I already know what this test is about, just from listening to the way Kakashi explained it."_

 

_"Oh yeah, what did you come up with?" Shikamaru asked as he poured some tea for him and Naruto._

 

_"The thing about the bell doesn't make sense. I haven't heard of a three-man genin team, at least, not during the times that I was actually allowed to stay in the class anyways." Naruto started, "I think that this bell test thing is about something else, but I'm not completely sure what it is."_

 

_"If you think about it, then it's really about teamwork, right?" Shikamaru asked taking a sip of his tea before opening one of the bento boxes that Naruto had sealed away._

 

_Naruto had his thinking pose on, one had on his chin with the other one under his elbow as support. "No, it's not just about teamwork, I think....hm, maybe team mechanics or something?" He tilted his head to the side, "maybe he wants to see how we work as a team before we really become one?"_

 

_Shikamaru nodded, "makes enough sense." But Naruto didn't seem convinced, "what's wrong, that's it, isn't it?"_

 

_Naruto shook his head after a few seconds, "that's it, but it's also something else."_

 

_"What do you mean?"_

 

_"Well think about it, Shika," Naruto said picking up his own bento box. "If this was only about our team dynamic, then it would only just be him coming. But it's not, Jiji-sama and those other two came with him, right?" Shikamaru nodded, "then there has to be something more to it. Something that is way different from just teamwork and stuff."_

 

_Shikamaru thought for a second, "well, you did, technically, became a clan head yesterday. You also asked to take over the village's security, which isn't a job to take lightly. You know that, right, Naruto?"_

 

_Naruto absently nodded, "so it's about strength and skills then." He smiled happily thinking that he could go all out on Kakashi with Kyuubi's help._

 

 **_"What did I just say earlier, kit? I'm not able to help you unless you want those dusty farts your village calls a council to find out that you're already in contact with me. You'll just have to pass this on your own,"_ ** _the Kyuubi yawned as he curled up more at the back of the blond's mind._

 

_Naruto frowned, "damn it, I almost forgot that I couldn't use it's power while they're here." He sighed dramatically, "well, it looks like it's on to plan B after all," he said as he started to scarf down his food._

 

_Shikamaru was confused, "it's power?... You mean-"_

 

_"Yes, I'll explain it to you later, but all you need to know right now is that it's not controlling me or nothing. It's actually helped me more than anything else." Naruto stopped shoving food down his throat to take a drink of his tea. He cleared his throat once the food in his mouth had made it safely down to his stomach without chocking him, "right, so let's make sure that we pass all of their expectations, in fact, I'm going to exceed expectations and just go in for the kill." He turned to Shikamaru, "oh, uh, not literally though," he smiled innocently._

 

_Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at his blond mate, but he let it go. They finished eating in silence when a thought occurred to Shikamaru, "so...uh, about this whole CRA thing...I-"_

 

_Naruto shot up from his spot on the ground with a mouth full of food and an empty bento box, "right! It's time to get going, we'll talk about that later."_

 

_"Wha-no way, you finished that whole box that quick!" Shikamaru said surprised since his own box was only half empty. Naruto gave him one of Lee's 'good guy' pose before turning and running off in a seemingly random direction. "Hey, wait! Ah man, what a drag..."_

 

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_Kakashi had just managed to drag Sasuke into the earth with only his head sticking out with his Headhunter jutsu. "Well then, that was easy, now to go check up on those two lovebirds." Kakashi turned away from Sasuke and took a few steps towards the north._

 

**Flashback end**

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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**To be continued...**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SURPRIIIIISE xD


	9. Son-in-law problems...

Kakashi was just barely able to jump away from the blast. But he wasn't quick enough for the shockwave of the attack sent him flying into a tree two yards from where he was standing. The copy ninja shook himself off and looked around the area to see if he could find his attacker. He had a feeling that this might have been Sasuke's backup plan after being captured by the jonin. However, he couldn't be any more wrong. Out of the tree, that he was just flung into, two Naruto's jumped out and started running around him. Kakashi prepared for the blond's next attack, he watched as the Naruto clones ran around him faster and faster, causing a gust of wind to build up around them.  _"He's up to something, is he trying to confuse me? It's not going to work like this,"_ he thought as he took out a kunai from his pouch,  _"there!"_ Kakashi threw the knife at one of the Naruto's, it hit, which he expected as much, however, what he didn't expect was for the clone to also explode when it got hit. "Damn it," Kakashi jumped away just in time to avoid the blast, but as he was jumping, he fell into another trap. "What?" Was all he could get out as he just barely dodged three giant logs with exploding tags attached to them and barreling his way at top speed. He hopped over a trap pit that had been perfectly placed in the spot that he would have landed in, but with his years as an ANBU backing him, he saw right through it.  _"Well, well, it looks like someones trying to get back at me for being late this morning, but I have to wonder who it could be. As far as I know, Sasuke isn't skilled enough in trap making to set all these traps and in such a short time. whoever did all of this must have been prepared beforehand. Could it be Shikamaru?"_ Kakashi scanned the area for more traps, dodging tripwire and other seemingly simple traps as he made his way across the field, ducking into shadows as he went. He used the trees as a safe place to stop and think, it would soon be time for the test to end. Just one more hour and he could fail the team, once that was done, he could finally take Sasuke under his wing as he had originally planned. 

 

Kakashi's thoughts were interrupted when the sudden sound of bells ringing and a presence next to him caught his attention. He immediately turned to his side, only to find nothing there. He checked to see that both bells were still present and accounted for, "that was odd..." He thought out loud, _"is it because I didn't get much sleep last night?"_ He wondered. 

 

"That might be apart of it. You do seem a little off your game, Hatake." Kakashi turned back around to see that Naruto was standing on the tree blanch not too far away from his. Still, even when the boy was so close, Kakashi couldn't even sense a hint of chakra coming from the blond. It was almost as if he wasn't even there! Naruto had a smug look on his face as he stared at Kakashi, "what's the matter, Copy Cat Kakashi? Cat got your tongue?" 

 

Kakashi said nothing at first as he analyzed the blond. "Tell me something Naruto, why can't I feel your chakra signature when you're standing so close?" He asked the boy, "even a well-trained genin can't hide their chakra as well as you're doing right now, so how are you doing it?" 

 

Naruto chuckled, "hehehe, like I would give away such a secret. But, I will tell you this much, I have a much longer time to practice hiding than anyone else in my class has. You and the other adults in the village should already know what I mean." He stated as he put both hands in his pocket, "but if you don't then shame on you for forgetting what you've done to me all these years."

 

"Hn, I don't know what you're talking about. You look well enough to me," Kakashi said in a more laid-back tone, even though he was still very much on guard around the blond. 

 

Naruto shook his head, "tsk, ignorance may be bliss, but bliss can turn deadly in a matter of seconds." Just then, Naruto's form started to fade away as if he was only a projection playing the end of a message.

 

 _"I see, so he wasn't really here after all."_ Kakashi took out another kunai as he looked around for the blond again,  _"it might be best to keep moving. Naruto may have been the dead last of his class, but he was excellent at pranking people when they least expected it."_ With that in mind, Kakashi took off deeper into the forest to find his other two students. If Naruto was setting off bombs at random, he should at least make sure that the other two doing the test were in a safe place so that he could focus on Naruto fully. Kakashi decided that Sasuke should be the first person he checked on because the last time he saw the young Uchiha, he was stuck in the ground. Doubling back to the spot, Kakashi was a little surprised that th hole he dragged Sasuke into was now left empty,  _"he either escaped or someone came to help him."_ He closed his eyes to find his other supposed student, Shikamaru. He was able to find his signature near Sasuke's a few meters away,  _"hm, could they have figured out the true meaning of my test?  I guess there's only one way to find out,"_ Kakashi disappeared in a puff of smoke, not realizing that he was being watched by the blond he was just speaking to. When Kakashi appeared, he looked down to where Sasuke's and Shikamaru's chakra signatures were, or at least, should have been. Although, when he looked in their direction, he only saw two dolls that look like Sasuke and Shikamaru. "Wait, what?" Kakashi suddenly felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, he jumped off the branch he landed on just in time to see a kunai and some ninja stars embed themselves in the spot he was just in. He looked over to see who it was and saw Sasuke standing there. "So you managed to escape my Headhunter jutsu after all, ne?" 

 

"As if I could ever let something like dirt get in my way of achieving my goal," the Uchiha boasted as he readied another flurry of kunai to throw at the jonin.

 

"Then, in that case, I should see all you've got," Kakashi said as he prepared to intercept Sasuke.

 

"Ha, I won't be followed by your tricks this time, Kakashi!" Sasuke took off running towards Kakashi, throwing punches and kicks with a few jabs of his kunai every now and then. 

 

Meanwhile, Kakashi dodged and parried every jab, punch, and kick Sasuke threw at him. Even though he was defending himself just fine against Sasuke, he noticed something odd about the boy fighting him.  _"I can't get a read on him like before, did something happen? Well, he's still fighting the same as before, but somehow...different?"_ He parried another kick and grabbed Sasuke's hands as he threw another punch, he got ready to flip the Uchiha on his back, that is, until he suddenly felt something grab his foot. He didn't have enough time to look down at what it was when he was just as suddenly pulled from the earth. 

 

Yes, the earth. 

 

As in, instead of sinking into the dirt, he was pulled up into the sky as if someone was picking up something from the ground.

 

Kakashi looked around to see what had taken hold of him, yet he could spot a soul. Even Sasuke had mysteriously disappeared. "KAI!" He tried to break whatever spell he was under but nothing happened. He just kept on floating higher and fire into the air as he watched the ground below him get smaller and small. He saw the tops of the trees as he got higher, he looked down at his feet and saw the clouds getting closer. "Clearly whatever jutsu they put on me is not going to be dispelled with simple methods, I'm going to have to bring it out," as he said this, he lifted up the side of his headband that was usually kept down. Revealing his secret weapon during a simple genin test was not something that he was expecting to do today, but he was tired of being turned around by genin. He opened his Sharingan eye while his normal one closed, the tomoes in his eye rotated quickly and he tried to dispell the jutsu again, "KAI!" Just like that, everything around him started to blur together as he forced his chakra to stop and then flare out again, but stronger. When the blurring stopped, he looked around and saw the normal forest again, he could also since all three of the genin he was supposed to be testing as well as the Hokage and the two clan heads that were watching. For some reason, while he was trying to make heads or tails of the situation with Naruto's supposed missing chakra signature, he didn't realize that he couldn't sense the Hiruzen's, Shikaku's or Inoichi's signatures either. He thought that they were making it easier for everyone to focus on the test if they forgot that they were there.

 

But could he have been wrong about that? 

 

"That's the million Ryo question, I guess," Kakashi sighed as he stood. "I guess I better find my students before the time-" he was cut off by the sound of his timer going off. "Or not...well, better go see if anyone was able to figure it out."

 

When Kakashi finally made his way back to the clearing where it all started, he saw all three genin already waiting for him. He looked to the three adults there, Hiruzen looked pleased, Shukaku was staring holes into Naruto trying to analyze him (good luck), and Inoichi seemed to be in shock. Confused, Kakashi went up to the genin, "Kakashi, what took you so long? I was starting to wonder if we would have to wait two whole hours for you to show up like every other meeting you need to be at," Hiruzen stated as the copy ninja rejoined the group.

 

"My apologies, Hokage-sama, however, it seems like we might have a very talented genjutsu user on this team after all." Kakashi stated as he stood before his genin, his eye was looking at Sasuke, wondering if the young Uchiha had unlocked his Sharingan without anyone knowing it. Yet, that didn't make sense because if it was a newly awoken Sharingan, Kakashi was sure he would have been able to break the jutsu he was under before much sooner and with way less effort than he had used. Plus, he would have had to seen Sasuke casting the jutsu on him during their earlier fight, where he would have also seen the stage of the boy's newly waken bloodline. Although, that did not seem to be the case because Kakashi noticed that when he was talking about the genjutsu, Sasuke didn't seem to show any indication of knowing what he was talking about.  _"If it's not Sasuke, then-then who cast the genjutsu on me?"_

 

"A genjutsu user?" Inoichi asked, he also looked towards Sasuke before turning back to Kakashi.

 

"...I'm not sure..." answered the Hatake as he looked over at the other two graduates.

 

Hiruzen stepped forward, "well then, I think I've seen enough. Kakashi, why don't you see if these three will become your new team or not." 

 

Kakashi nodded, he noted the kage's knowing look and decided to ask about it later. Turning his attention back to the test, he looked over the three boys, "alright. This didn't really go as planned, but since the timer went off and I still have the bells, I would like to know what you all have to say for yourselves. You had plenty of time to come up with something to at least show me that you deserve to be ninjas, so start explaining."

 

"Why don't you check again, Mr. Cyclops, I don't see any bells on your waist," Naruto said with a yawn. He laid down, using Shikamaru's lap as a pillow, while the said boy tried his best not to make eye contact with his father. Who, by the way, was glaring hard at the blond in his lap, though Naruto seemed unfazed.

 

Kakashi checked the side he tied the bells onto earlier. The two clan heads and the village leader also glanced at the spot, just in time to see both bells fade away into nothing. "Wait, what happened to the bells? They were just there, weren't they?" Inoichi whispered to his friend, Shikaku.

 

Shikaku nodded, "yeah, I saw them too."

 

Kakashi was confused once again, he looked back to Naruto, "so...was it you that cast the genjutsu in the forest?" 

 

"You were under a genjutsu, Kakashi?" Inoichi asked he had never heard any story where Kakashi Hatake, the ninja that copied thousands of jutsus over the years, get caught in a genjutsu. Although, he did suppose that even Kakashi would be susceptible to such things.

 

"Yes, a very good one at that,'' Kakashi admitted. He stared at the relaxed blond on Shikamaru's lap, "how did you do it? That level of genjutsu would have to be B rank bordering on A rank. Did someone train-"

 

"No one trained me to do anything. I was on my own since day one, and with the way I was treated in the academy, I was lucky to make it as far as I did on my own." Naruto stated as he turned away from Kakashi and shamelessly hugged Shikamaru's midsection like a teddy bear. 

 

The younger Nara blushed as Naruto's face came dangerously close to his crotch. "Hey, what do you think you're doing in front of everyone, stop it!" Shikamaru whispered to his mate, but Naruto didn't show any sign of hearing what he said, making him frown. 

 

Shikaku's glare intensified.

 

Kakashi ignored Naruto's actions for the moment, "then how did you learn ninjutsu? Someone had to teach you."

 

"I taught myself," Naruto answered. "Whenever I was kicked out of class, I would sneak into the library when it was dark out or no one was around and read what I could before being kicked out. Recently I learned about genjutsus and thought I would give it a go. I' glad my hard work finally paid off," he yawned again and reached into his pocket before throwing something to Kakashi. The join caught it without fail, looking in his hands, he saw that it was the bells, "by the way, you can have these back, I don't need them to prove I'm a real ninja. I already know I am." He turned back to Shikamaru and hugged him closer, deepening the blush on the boy's face. "If you're going to send me back to the academy, the least you can do is put some effort into training Shikamaru and Sasuke, they were a pretty good help with my plan."

 

Shikaku narrowed his eyes at Naruto. If looks could kill, Naruto would be six feet under right about now.

 

Thankfully, Inoichi was there to make sure that his friend didn't attack the boy way he lay. "Uh, how about you tell us about this plan of yours, Naruto...Naruto?"

 

Without anyone realizing it, Naruto had fallen asleep, "are you serious right now?" Sasuke glared heatedly at his classmate, he grunted, "whatever, I'll explain." He grunted while folding his arms, "after Kakashi pulled me into the ground with his headhunter jutsu and then stepped on a hidden paper bomb, Shikamaru showed up. He helped me out of the hole and brought me to Naruto where he placed these seal things on us," he explained as he pulled out a piece of paper with some neatly written kanji on it.

 

"And what are those supposed to be?" Shikaku asked tearing his eyes away from the back of Naruto's head long enough to pay attention to what Sasuke was talking about. The seal he held up looked like something that Minato Namakaza would write, but how could that be? He was sure that Naruto didn't have anyone teaching him anything that advanced. Or, at least, anyone in that he knew of in the village.

 

"Donno, the dobe only told us to put it on before we tried to face Kakashi." Sasuke said as he handed the seal over to Inoichi who wanted to inspect it, Hiruzen and Shikaku looked over his shoulder to also get a closer look at the paper. It was needless to say that all three were impressed by the blond's handy work but also curious about who taught the boy the art in the first place. Sasuke continued as the adults looked over the paper he has them, "he came up with a plan that involved him distracting Kakashi while he Shikamaru and I worked together to get the bells. It wasn't until I was fighting with him did I notice he was under some kind of trace because his movements seemed slower than before. It made it easier to get the bells."

 

"If that's true, then how come Naruto was the one that had the bells?" Kakashi asked looking up at Sasuke after inspecting his bells. He was trying to make sure that these were the real ones, unlike the ones that faded away from his side.

 

"After getting the bells from you, Naruto came over and told us that he had a theory about your test that he wanted to prove." Shikamaru started, "he said that his theory could be a fifty-fifty chance of us passing or failing."

 

"And you trusted him enough to give him the bells and prove his theory?" Hiruzen asked, impressed that the boy that everyone said was an idiot for all these years had come up with such an elaborate plan. Not to mention get both of his teammates to participate in it long enough to achieve a common goal. Then again, he was still surprised by Naruto's skills and behavior from the day before.

 

"Yes," Shikamaru nodded.

 

Sasuke turned his head away from them, "hn, I could have taken back the bells if his theory didn't pan out in my favor."

 

Shikamaru rolled his eyes, "yeah right."

 

Hiruzen nodded his head, "I see," he turned to the jonin sensei, "well, Kakashi, what's your final verdict?"

 

Kakashi looked at both Shikamaru and Sasuke's curious, and slightly hopeful faces. He looked down at Naruto, still asleep on Shikamaru's lap,  _"do I even get a choice?... Guess not..."_   he sighed, "you all pass. Starting today, team seven is an official genin team. We'll be meeting back here tomorrow morning, bright and early, to start our first real mission."

 

"Hn, so the dobe was right after all," Sasuke stated as he got up from the ground and stretched his arms.

 

Shikamaru shook Naruto awake, Naruto slowly opened his eyes and sat up. He yawned tiredly, "is it time for lunch yet?" He asked as Shikamaru helped/pulled him to his feet.

 

"We already had lunch, Naruto, remember?" Shikamaru sighed.

 

"No, that was late breakfast, it's time for lunch now," the blond stated matter-of-factly with his stomach backing him up audibly.

 

"Hey, I thought I said not to have breakfast? Are you guys already disobeying my orders?" Kakashi asked exasperatedly.

 

"You said not to eat before getting here. You didn't say anything about not eating while we were already here," Naruto stated as he and Shikamaru started leaving the training ground. "Hey, hey, Shikamaru, let's eat some ramen before we start our date."

 

"Start you what!" Shikaku yelled as he whipped his head around to the couple so fast they everyone thought he would get whiplash. 

 

Shikamaru jumped at his father's yell.  _"Crap, dad's probably going to kill Naruto for not following protocol and asking them if he could date him. We're screwed if we don't leave now,"_  grabbed Naruto's hands, "yeah! Sure thing Naruto, let's hurry up and get out of so we can eat it. Bye dad, see you later!"

 

Shikamaru ran away from the clearing so fast he almost looked like he was flying. Shikaku was extremely mad now, which said a lot because Nara's have never been known to get visibly angry or raise their voice before. But now, everything was possible ever since Shikaku found out that his son was now MARRIED, not just dating, the demon vessel. Inoichi tried his best to keep his friend and former teammate from trying to hunt the young Uzumaki down like a while animal. (And this is before he finds out about Shikamaru's deflowering in the forest). "Now, now, Shikaku, try not to do anything too crazy, remember, Naruto's just became a new clan head, which means if you try to attack him openly without reason, he could retaliate against your clan and start a war between your clans." Inoichi explained as he held his friend back, "plus the marriage between them is legal, there's a witness statement and everything!"

 

"I don't care! I won't let that monster steal away my only son!" Shikaku said as he tried to push Inoichi out of the way so that he could rip the Uzumaki apart. "Besides, he didn't even come to Yoshino and me to ask for our son's hand in marriage like he was supposed to."

 

"But to be fair, Shikaku, would you two even give him your blessing?"

 

"HELL NO!"

 

The Yamanaka signed and let his friend go, who immediately ran after his son's new husband. 

 

Kakashi looked between Inoichi and Hiruzen, who didn't seem fazed by Shikaku's behavior towards the younger blond. "Uh, did I miss something?" He asked curiously, surprised at how fast both Nara's could leave an area when they really wanted to.

 

Hiruzen placed a hand on Kakashi's shoulder, "it's probably best if we don't get involved right now, Kakashi."


	10. Seal of approval

**Four weeks later**

 

Naruto was a patient guy.

 

Naruto was an honest guy.

 

Naruto was an understanding guy.

 

But, ever since he became a genin and a clan head around the same time, he couldn't figure out why in the hell people were bothering him more now. When he was regular old Naruto, dead last of the class, and seemingly not a real threat to anyone. He would only get glared at, mean comments, one or two beatings a month, not including the rapes. However, now that he was both a ninja and the head of a new clan, the villagers seemed to be in an uproar about it. Every morning, right at the crack of dawn, for some unknown reason, an ANBU would be waiting at his front gates with a stack of paperwork he needed to fill out. Naruto disliked paperwork, so he left it to his clones to look over. It wouldn't have bothered him that much if it wasn't for the fact that the amount of ANBU that showed up each morning would increase. Bring more paperwork with them each time. Naruto disliked wasting his time on things that seemed completely irrelevant for him to deal with, especially knowing that he was finally able to become a ninja. Yet, the ANBU kept telling him that the papers were supposed to be one of his clan head duties. 

 

Naruto didn't believe them for a second.

 

Of course, while Naruto had to deal with the paperwork that his clones kept on reading and then filing away for later. Because who had time to sit and fill out two mountains worth of dead trees with words on them? Other things kept popping up that annoyed him just as much.

 

Kakashi, for example.

 

Kakashi was only kind of annoying. But still very much annoying. Naruto was sure that the Hatake had yet to reach the level of annoyance that the daily dose of paper paperwork had reached, but he was getting there. Since Naruto had applied that seal to Kakashi that night, the copy ninja had gone through some changes that he tried to hide from everyone, however, Naruto was able to see them all. Starting with the mood swings. He noticed them because Shikamaru was also experiencing mood swings, although, they were different from each other. Shikamaru's moods would switch between:

  * Wanting to cuddle or being clingy all the time.
  * Wanting sex all the time.
  * Crying about something normal.
  * Or not wanting anyone to talk or touch him at any time.



While these Shikamaru would wake up within a good mood most of the time and would simply want to attack all the clothes Naruto was wearing on most days. On some day, Shikamaru would want nothing to do with the blond and would send him glares from across the table while they ate their breakfast. Other times, Naruto would wake up to an empty bed only to find that his mate had wandered out of the bed and into one of the guest rooms that were scattered all over the house. Usually picking the one that was furthest away from the master bedroom that they shared. And then there were those few days were Naruto would wake up and find Shikamaru crying on the bathroom floor in front of the toilet. When Naruto would try to comfort him, Shikamaru would either jump right into his arms or start yelling at him because he couldn't understand his emotions lately. These last two scenarios have been happening much more frequently in the past few weeks. As for Kakashi's mood swings, Naruto noticed that he would switch between:

  * Sulking when he thought no one was looking.
  * Meeting his team at least an hour and a half later than his usual two-hour tardiness. Sometimes looking a mess when he did.
  * Disappearing while his genin was busy working and then come back about half an hour later with messy clothes and hair. 
  * Letting his eye linger on a girl or a guy for a little longer than normal.
  * Being overly cheerful when he met his team.
  * Looking like he would rather be anywhere else.
  * Or, in very, very rare occasions, actually showing up  _on time or early_.



Since Naruto did not live with Kakashi, he could only take a guess at why the jonin took longer to show up than normal. He really started to notice the changes when on the day after Kakashi showed up an extra hour late to practice, he showed up an hour earlier the next day. And looked more lively than when a non-morning person drinks three cups of coffee before leaving the house. It was a bit of a shock to see, especially when he greeted the Hokage with a bright smile that same morning. It was in that moment Naruto knew he had to look into the jonin's strange behavior, so he sent a clone after the Hatake once they're supposed 'teamwork training' was over. From what he found out from his clone, it seems that the seal he placed was taking a bigger effect than both Naruto and the fox had first anticipated. He would need to check it more thoroughly soon. Of course, Naruto knew why Shikamaru was acting the way he was, Kyuubi had already explained to him the different stages of a mates pregnancy. Since demons are more advanced than humans, it wouldn't take nine months for the baby to be born, instead, three months is all that was needed. Other than the strange mood swings he was seeing, Shikamaru will also experience strange eating habits, weight gain, back pain, sore feet, etc. so basically everything that's expected but in a shorter time. 

 

Now, along with Shikamaru's and Kakashi's mood swings.

 

The constant stream of paperwork that seems to drow daily.

 

And having to deal with the upset villagers, especially the civilian council, Naruto also had to deal with Shikaku. Again, Naruto was a patient, honest, understanding guy. But the Nara clan head and his wife was really starting to test him. Naruto didn't like being tested if it wasn't needed, so he had taken to hiding/avoiding the two every possible chance he got. It was working well so far, he was rather skilled when it came to not being found when he didn't want to be. He was almost positive he would have our smart the two parents so he didn't have to deal with their glares and invasive questioning.

 

That is until today.

 

Today was a bad day. 

 

Not bad in the way that it used to be when he was younger, but today just wasn't his day.

 

Why? Because...

 

**Flashback**

 

 

_It was early in the morning when Naruto woke up. He rolled over to curl up next to Shikamaru...only to find an empty spot on the bed. The blond got up sleepily and looked at the clock, it read seven twenty-five, still pretty early to be waking up. He decided to get out of bed and check the place where he was almost certain his mate would be. The bathroom. Making his way over to the said door, he opened it just in time to catch the sound of retching, he was a little happy that  Shikamaru was pregnant but other than knowing that he would be a father in a few months, he had no idea how to feel. He was twelve, after all, an orphan on top of that, and one that hadn't know love above that too. Still, he was happy, he walked over to Shikamaru to try and comfort him as he emptied his stomach. "Hey, Shika-chan, how are you feeling? Can I get you anything?" He asked as he got down next to the paler boy and rubbed his back._

 

_Shikamaru wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and used the other to push the blond away, "how do you think I'm doing!" He cried just before he was forced to turn back to the toilet bowl to throw up more._

 

_Naruto gave him a sympathetic look, knowing that today would be one of Shikamaru's more emotional days. For his sake, he hoped that they didn't have to deal with any heavy lifting. On these days, Shikamaru's lower back would hurt the most even though the other boy insisted he would be fine later. "How about some tea, which would you like?" He asked as he stood up._

 

_Shikamaru sniffled as the tears already started to fall, " make hot chocolate with peppermint instead."_

 

_Naruto nodded, "sure, I'll put in some whip cream on top for you too." Shikamaru smiled at him before his stomach met his throat again, Naruto sighed and left the bathroom to go make the drink. As he walked down the steps, he conversed with the Kyuubi, "so he'll need to gain some more weight soon, huh?"_

 

_**"Yep, since it'll take a shorter time for your mates to give birth, you should pick another mate that will be more willing to help him through the process. After all, they will need to fend for themseves if there is ever a time when you're forced to be away from them for longer than expected. Having tough mates will increase the chances of the pack's survival as a whole by a lot,"**  the Kyuubi replied expertly._

 

_"Hm, then, in that case, my next mate will need to have some endurance already built up to ensure their safety. I then maybe I could see if-"_

 

_**"No, don't even think about it, kit. Yes, the scarecrow would make a good addition, but the seal isn't quite finished with him yet."** _

 

_"Then who would you suggest?" Naruto thought of the right word as he enters the kitchen, "it shouldn't be someone that's overly difficult to deal with beforehand."_

 

_The fox thought for a second, **"ooh, how about that Inuzuka boy from your class. His clan has natural animalistic instincts, gaining one will guarantee a strong mate."**_

 

_"Inuzuka? You mean Kiba?" He thought about it for a second, "okay, he might not be too bad, but what about Akamaru? I remember whenever I got too close to them once, he growled at me."_

 

_**"That shouldn't be too much of a problem now that you have the Nara boy as your mate. I'm not sure if I told you this or not, but with every mate you accept, you start secreting pheromones th** **at shows your the dominant one of the relationship. Shikamaru will also secret pheromones that shows he's submissive. The more mates you have, the stronger the scent. With said, Kiba and his dog will definitely start seeing you as the alpha, from what I remember of his clan, he** _ _**will probably try to challenge you before he submits himself to you."** _

 

 

_"Sounds promising," Naruto thought as he made breakfast._

 

 

* * *

 

_**Later that morning**   
_

__

_Team seven had arrived for there missions as usual, but unlike usual, they had a very cheery Kakashi with them. When they showed up, Shikaku was talking to the Hokage. Naruto inwardly cursed at his luck and tried to keep a neutral expression about himself while Kakashi asked for a mission for them. The moment that that Shikaku noticed them, as per usual whenever he spotted Naruto, he glared at the blond with a bit of disdain. With the way that Shikamaru was feeling on this particular day was a combination of both his sad and clingy days, so they couple entered the office with Shikamaru practically glued to Naruto's side. Which made Shikaku's glare that much more heated. If anyone else in the room had noticed the glare from the Nara clan head, they didn't show it._

 

_"Team seven reporting for duty, Hokage-sama!" Kakashi said cheerfully._

 

_"Ah, perfect timing, Kakashi. Shikaku over here was just telling me how he needed someone to help out around his compound," Hiruzen stated happily, he was also trying to defuse the tension he was feeling between Shikaku and Naruto. Not like he could really do anything about it seeing as how neither one had the chance to outright attack the other in his presence. Which was a hopeful sign, the question, how long would this semi-piece last between them. "Seeing as how it's getting close to the time of the summer festival, he would like a team to come and help them prepare for it, do you accept?"_

 

_"Of course we do, sir! It would be a great way to spend the morning, don't you think guys?" Kakashi asked his team, but all he got in reply was grumbles and whispered curses._

 

_"Hn, what a waste of time," grumbled Sasuke, not caring at all._

 

_"Does it have to be him?" Naruto grumbled under his breath._

 

_Shikamaru cuddled Naruto's arm tighter, looking a little paler than usual. Of course, this was becoming a natural look for him, "I don't feel so good. Naruto can we just go home and lay down? My head and back hurt a lot today," he whined as he put his head on the blond's shoulder. He also felt a little dizzy, in fact, the only thing that was keeping him on his feet right now was him leaning on Naruto for support._

 

_Naruto frowned at Shikamaru, "soon, once we get to the compound, you can rest, okay?" Shikamaru groaned disappointedly but nodded his head nonetheless._

 

_Yet, Kakashi's good mood did not seem fazed by his genin's attitudes. or by the fact that they were basically ignoring him, "that's the spirit guys!" He turned back to the kage, "we'll start right away!"_

 

_Hiruzen stared at Kakashi for a long moment, still not used to his sudden and very random moods that seem to change on the daily. He didn't know what was going on with the jonin, but if it continued, he would have to start scheduling the man for even more therapy visits with Inoichi. Mostly to make sure to check to see if his mental stability had not finally cracked after all these years on the job. "Very well, so you have any-Shikaku!" The elderly man had turned to the clan head to ask if this would be alright, only to see the younger male glaring at Naruto so hard it looked like he was trying to make the boy burst into flames. Also while looking as if there were flames surrounding him as well as he narrowed his eyes at the blond, in this case, Hiruzen was fearing for all the paper in the room, " stop glaring so hard, Shikaku! You're going to set my paperwork on fire!"_

 

**Flashback end**

 

And that is how Naruto and Shikamaru ended up staring down both Nara's parents, who were heatedly at the blond, while Kakashi and Sasuke were outside herding the deer. Or at least they were trying to herd the deer. From the way, both parents were glaring at Naruto. The said blond was wondering how the whole house wasn't set on fire yet because they both looked like bonfires to him at the moment. Naruto cleared his throat as he addressed the parents, "sooo...I'm not a mind reader, what do y'all want?" He asked them, getting to the point.

 

Yoshino was the first to speak, "what have you done to my son!" 

 

"What? He's fine," Naruto shrugged his shoulders as Shikamaru picked that moment to lean on his shoulder once more. Even though they were sitting, he could tell that Shikamaru was still feeling all that great being upright. He wanted to put him to bed or let him lay down on his lap, but he was sure that both his parents would try to decapitate him if he made a move right now.

 

Yoshino slammed her hand down on the table as she glared holes into Naruto's head, "don't give me that crap! Look at my baby boy! HE LOOKS LIKE HE'S DYING!!" She yelled.

 

Naruto stayed quiet for a few moments, making the flames around both parents brighten considerably. Shikaku unfolded his arms and leaned onto the table. "Do you think you can just walk in here like this and we'll sit by as we watch you take our son away from us?" He asked in a threatening voice.

 

Naruto's face stayed neutral, "you're the one that came to request help with your Summer fest thing. So..." he let the sentence hang in the air.

 

"That's not the point. What I want to know is, why in the hell are you going after my son?" Yoshino shouted at him, "of all the boys you could have gone after, why my boy? He hasn't come home in a month! Why are you holding him hostage!!"

 

"But I'm not, I told Shikamaru that he was free to go home whenever he pleased, but he has yet to take me up on the offer. What do you want me to do, drop him off while he's sleeping or something?" The blond asked, but in reality, Kyuubi had told him the reason why Shikamaru had yet to go home in the four weeks since their meeting with the Hokage. It's because whenever a mate get's pregnant, their first instinct is to be in a place or with the person that makes them feel the safest, even during Shikamaru's bad moods, he still within sight of Naruto at all times. 

 

"Can you guys stop yelling so much, you're making my head hurt," Shikamaru whined pathetically with a pout on his face. He looked so much like a sad kitten that everyone in the room calmed down at the sight of him. 

 

Shikaku sighed, his flames dying down, "alright Naruto, listen up since you've already married our son-"

 

"HE DID WHAT!!" Screamed a shocked Yoshino before her renewing her glare on the blond. Naruto guessed that this might have been the first time she was hearing about it.

 

"-The least you can do is try to respect our traditions in these matters." Shikaku continued on after his wife had cut him off, he didn't like the idea any more than his wife did, but after a quick conversation with the clan elders, a decision was made. Even if the Nara clan had lost many loved ones at fateful night the fox attacked, they were not ignorant enough to pass up the opportunity to Allie with a possibly strong clan. Seeing that Naruto was the jinturiki of the village, it was no doubt that he was strong, and having strong allies was always a plus. Although, Shikaku did wish that his son didn't have to go through life not getting knowing what it was like to be a father. 

 

Or so he thought.

 

Naruto thought about it for a second, "alright, I'll do my best to honor your wish. However, in order for me to do such a thing, I will need something from you too."

 

"What more can you take from us besides our own child?!" Yoshino asked, her fist shaking in anger.

 

Naruto ignored her outburst, Shikaku signed, "depending on what it is you need."

 

Naruto yawned, "since I'm only a new clan head, an orphan, and the local village idiot, it stands to reason that I don't have very much education on politics. We both know very why that is, so I can only assume you can put the dots together on what that would mean for me now."

 

Shikaku felt a small stab of pity hit him in the gut, but he pushed that feeling down to keep his face neutral. "In that case, we'll have to tutor you in the art of politics and clan procedures then, correct?"

 

"Correct," Naruto stood up and helped Shikamaru to his feet, "if that's all, we have a mission to complete."

 

"Wait, hold on," Yoshino didn't want Naruto to be touching her son, however, when Shikaku told her of what the elders said, she had to agree. She didn't want to agree and have her son endure whatever the blond had in store for him. Yet, she wasn't completely powerless, if she suspected Naruto of doing anything wrong to her son, she would make sure to end him right then and there. Getting up from her seat and making her way around the table to stand next to the two, she placed a hand on Shikamaru's forehead, "he has a fever!" She said surprised, "he's practically burning up!" 

 

"Which is why I'm was trying to hurry this up so he could lay down," Naruto said, he was a little annoyed that the woman had stopped them from leaving. Especially when he could feel Shikamaru leaning more on him, he wasn't heavy, but it was difficult to walk with someone clinging onto you for what seemed like dear life. Not to mention that Shikamaru was looking even paler now that he was back on his feet, Naruto didn't know how he knew, but he had a very strong gut feeling that Shikamaru was trying not to pass out right there then. And taking on look at his mate, he was losing the battle.  _"Kyuubi, what's going on with him? Is this normal?"_ He wondered to the fox as Shikaku walked around the table to feel his son's forehead as well. The fox looked through Naruto's eyes to see what he talking about and thought to himself.

 

"Your right," SHikaku said to his wife, his eyes narrowed at Naruto, "didn't you notice that he was unwell this morning?" He asked accusingly, but you could tell that there was an undertone of worry in his voice.

 

"Yes, but he wasn't this bad before." Naruto admitted, "this is only our first mission of the day and he was only clinging to me a little once we left home. Before that, everything seemed normal."

 

Shikaku grunted, "well, there's nothing that now except to see what we can do." He said before turning to Yoshino, "get some medicine from the bathroom while I take Shikamaru to his room." Yoshino nodded without another word, worry shown in her eyes. Shikaku then lifted his son into his arms and Naruto let him, he then started making his way over to the stairs when he noticed Naruto following him. "You can go back to the mission, Naruto, we've got it from he-"

 

"I'm not leaving him," Naruto said with defiance.

 

Shikaku could see it in his eyes, but he didn't care for it much. He grunted and turned back to the stairs, "suit yourself."

 

Shikaku put Shikamaru to bed and Naruto stayed by his side the whole time. Yoshino came back with the medicine and gave it to the sickly boy, "I put a call into the staff at the hospital. They said they're sending a doctor over to the compound," she informed them.

 

"Good, we'll wait to see what he has to say," Shikaku stated. He was about to say something to Naruto, but looking at the blond, he could see that he was just as worry about their son as they were, so he kept his mouth shut.

 

While they were waiting, Naruto conversed with the Kyuubi.  _"So, do you have any idea what's wrong with him? Has this ever happened before?"_

 

 **"Hmm..."** the Kyuubi hummed as he flicked his tails from side to side,  **"no, I don't have any information about sick mates personally. However..."**

 

_"However?"_

 

**"Hm, however, my brother, San, had a bit of a run in with something like this once. He got really close to this person that he wanted to mate, when he finally got the chance, he jumped on it without hesitation or thinking. A few weeks later, the person he ended up mating with got really sick after conception and nearly died."**

 

 _"You have a brother?"_ Naruto wondered but his mindset itself back on track,  _"wait, so did his mate survive? Was their baby okay after that?"_

 

 **"Uh, from what I remember, they made it out of the neck of the woods, okay, but the babies did make them go a little grey with worry after they were born. I think the same thing might have happened with my sister, Chomei and one of her mates, but that's a different story."** Kyuubi stated,  **"oh and yeah, I do have a brother, and sisters too. Did you think that there were other tailed beasts running around just because?"**

 

Naruto looked at Shikamaru's resting form thoughtfully,  _"okay, so you're brother's mate got sick and survived. But doesn't tell me anything, would you happen to recall why his mate got sick in the first place?"_ He wondered hopefully.

 

The Kyuubi racked his brain a little as he tried to remember,  **"ah, yea, as a matter of fact, I think I do remember since I went over there for a visit. As it turns out, his mate was actually pregnant with multiples that they weren't expecting. Since it was the first time and his mate was only just getting used to the changes that came with being a mate of a demon lord, his body wasn't fully equipt to handle the strain. Don't worry, from what I recall, he still managed to make a full recovery within about two days once his body got accustomed to the changes."**

 

 _"If that's true, then Shikamaru should make a full recovery around the same amount of time."_ Naruto sighed in relief just as the doctor walked into the room. 

 

When the doctor arrived, he spotted Naruto right away and sneered, "what is he doing here?" 

 

"That doesn't matter right now, can you tell us what's wrong with our son?" Shikaku asked, diverting the attention back to Shikamaru who seemed to be sweating under as he laid in his bed.

 

The doctor glared at Naruto for a second more before nodding to Shikaku and getting to work. He checked Shikaku over from head to toe, but he couldn't really determine what was really wrong with the boy. He made a guess using the symptoms that Shikaku and Yoshino had told him that they witnessed when Shikamaru had reached the compound. He didn't bother asking Naruto anything. "Alright, from what you've told me and what I've seen, it looks like your son only has a fever that should go down soon enough. Give him plenty of water and make sure he eats, you should also notify his sensei that he won't be going on any missions until he's fully recovered." He said as he packed up his stuff and started for the door with the parents thanking him, on his way out, he paused to glance back at the blond sitting next to Shikamaru's bedside. Sending him another glare, he turned to the parents, "maybe you should also keep  _him_ away from the boy as well, just a precaution."

 

Yoshino nodded, agreeing with the medic, "yes, doctor, of course," she said as she led him downstairs.

 

Naruto, of course, heard what the doctor said but ignored it. Choosing instead to focus on Shikamaru, said boy looked like he was in a bit of pain as he laid in mead. The sweat was rolling down his face as if he was standing in the rain. Naruto frowned and created a clone, "get something to cool him down and bring some water for him to drink." He ordered without turning around to look at his clone, the clone bowed and left the room to do as he was told without another word.

 

Shikaku watched the clone leave, he turned back to the real Naruto, "was this your doing?" He asked, almost accusingly.

 

Naruto paused, he couldn't really deny it. It wasn't like he was a medic or anything, so he couldn't prove it either. So his only answer was, "maybe..."

 

Shikaku narrowed his eyes at him, "what's that supposed to me?"

 

"That's between me and Shikamaru, why do you want to know?" Replied the blond.

 

"I'm his father, I have a right to know," Shikaku said stepping toward the vessel until he was towering over him.

 

Naruto sighed, he wasn't intimidated by the Nara head, he just didn't want to tell his business to the man. But, seeing as how he the elder man wouldn't drop the subject, he decided to tell. "yes."

 

"Yes, what?" Shikaku asked.

 

"Yes, I might have done this, but Kyuubi said he'll be fine, so I don't think there's any need to worry."

 

"Kyuubi..." Shikaku fully looked at the blond sitting next to him. "So, you are bei-"

 

"Not under his control," Naruto looked up at Shikaku with piercing eyes. "You can either believe me or not, I don't really care. You'll be just like the other fools in the village that can't tell the difference between me and him and that won't affect me much. Do you really think I would care about what you thought of me? I don't, the only reason I even came inside this house was so Shikamaru could have a seat and rest while we chat. Think what you like of me, but I'm not going anywhere," he then turned back to watching over Shikamaru as his clone and Yoshino came back into the room.

 

Shikaku stared at Naruto for a long time, what did he think of the blond sitting there next to his son so casually? He could tell that he was definitely dedicated to whatever cause he was after. He seemed loyal enough. Naruto there was still that something in the blond that Shikaku just didn't trust...and for some reason, he didn't feel like it had anything to do with the fox. Not this time anyway. Yoshino stood by her husband as she watched the clone place a cool cloth over their son's forehead that seemed to ease his discomfort. Yoshino's anger from earlier was dwindling bit by bit, that didn't mean it was completely gone thought. She looked up to her husband, "what are you thinking?" She asked.

 

Shikaku put his hands in his pockets, "I don't know yet," he said before walking out of the room after throwing another glance at his son and his new husband.  _"I'll find out what else you're hiding, Naruto. That I can promise,"_   he turned away and walked down the steps.  _"But until then, you better take good care of my son."_

 

 

**To be continued...**

 

 

 


	11. Savior pt. 1

**Two days later**

 

Just as the Kyuubi predicted, Shikamaru recovered and went back to his old self. 

 

* * *

 

**Meanwhile, elsewhere**

 

A blond haired man walked out onto the balcony of his New York apartment and breath in the cool summer air. "Ah, I can't believe that it's finally time to leave this place."

 

"Me too," the bland man turned around to see his wife walking over to him with their three-month-old daughter in tow. She stood next to him and smiled brightly, "did you send the letter to the village to let them know that we'll be coming back now?"

 

The man nodded as he kissed his wife on the forehead, "yes, I did. I just sent it off this morning before the Shoji left for school." He looked down at his youngest child and smiled as she frowned up at him, probably ready for a nap. "I also made sure to include that it'll be a surprise when we return so  _he_ doesn't know about it until we want him to."

 

The woman smiled brightly, "that's great, I'm sure he's going to be so happy to see us and meet his siblings finally. It was a bit of a challenge to leave him behind, but it was for the greater good...right?" She asked, a worried look on her face as she looked into her husband's blue eyes.

 

The man nodded, "yes, of course, it was. Besides, he's in a village that is surely spoiling him rotten right about now." He chuckled, "but I do hope that they don't spoil him too much."

 

"Yeah, me too," the woman chuckled as the baby in her arms started to whimper and cry. She cooed at the little girl to calm her down, "hey, I wonder what he's doing right about now?"

 

The man shrugged his shoulders, "donno, he might be getting ready for the graduation or something. Come on, let's go finish packing our things, Shoji will be coming back from his friend's house any minute now."

 

* * *

 

**Back in the village**

 

Now that Shikamaru was all better, even though his mood swings were still in effect, they had calmed down a bit. 

 

Today was a good day, why? Because team seven was finally going to get their first C ranked missions! 

 

And you know what that means...

 

* * *

**Earlier that day**

 

Naruto, Sasuke, and Shikamaru were walking back to the Hokage tower with a familiar cat curled up in Naruto's arms. Kakashi trailed behind them reading his book, just like every other day. However, Naruto didn't have the normal board expression he usually had when doing these eventless chores that were disguised as missions. Instead, he had a look of frustration on his face because "I'm done with these stupid missions." 

 

Sasuke and Shikamaru looked at him, their faces seemed to match his opinion. "Yeah, same here," Sasuke actually agreed with him. Even though he usually never would before joining the team, after sparing with Naruto a couple of times, he found that he was an acceptable sparing partner. He still thought that he was better than him though, but at least his blond teammate did not turn out as useless as he first thought he would boy. Other than the times he would find him and Shikamaru doing some mushy couple crap, he found that the blond wasn't as annoying as he used to be in the academy. If Sasuke were to give an honest review on his team, he would give them three stars for being 'Not Useless', although, he still thought he would do much better on his own.

 

Shikamaru yawned, "maybe we should ask the Hokage if we can get a C-rank mission then. It's already been a little over a month since we became a team, we should have been getting higher ranking missions at least a week or so ago by now."

 

Naruto turned to Shikamaru and nodded, "yeah, you're right. From what Hinata told us, she and her team has already gone on a few C-ranks already."

 

"Hinata?" Sasuke asked as they neared the tower, clearly forgetting the names of all his other classmates other than the ones on his team right now. Thinking back, he vaguely remembered a shy girl with pale eyes and skin that seemed to have a crush on Naruto. "Wait, is she the Hyuuga girl that liked you in the academy?" He wondered, trying to see if he guessed the right girl.

 

Shikamaru and Naruto gave him a deadpan look, "you really forgot about our classmates that fast, did you?" Asked the Nara.

 

Sasuke shrugged nonchalantly, "what? It's not like she was that great, to begin with. She was always stuttering and fumbling around, so why should I remember someone so weak?"

 

Naruto rolled her eyes, "first off, she was shy. Second, she's changed since then."

 

"Yeah right, the weak will never change," Sasuke stated as they entered the tower and walked up the steps to the Hokage's office.

 

"Says you," Shikamaru sneered at the Uchiha, "just because you think you're better than everyone doesn't-"

 

"Calm down, Shika-chan, he's not worth your anger," Naruto stated as they stood in front of the Hokage.

 

Sasuke rolled his eyes and placed his hands in his pocket, "whatever."

 

Just then their sensei cleared his throat, "ahem, if your conversation is over with now. Naruto, why don't you give the Fire Dimio's wife her cat back," stated Kakashi.

 

Naruto looked over to the Dimio's wife, walking over to her he bowed, "here you are ma'am." He handed over Tora and the Dimo's wife was quick to hug and squeeze the life out of the cat as usual, Naruto felt a little bad for the cat, even though she was every genin's worst nightmare Animal cruelty wasn't his thing, "If I may suggest something so that she doesn't runny away so soon again."

 

The Dimio's wife, let's call her Ann, stopped squishing her poor cat and looked at the blond. "Hm, you know a way to keep my sweet baby Tora from running away?" She asked curiously, as she paid for the mission before turning back to the blond. "If that's the case, why don't you take a walk with me on the way back to my carriage?" She asked.

 

"It would be my honor, Milady," Naruto said with a respectful bow, he followed the Dimio's wife out of the office before anyone could say anything to them. The chunins that were in the office, which happened to be Iruka and some faceless ninja of the same rank, were shaken by the sight.

 

As the two left, Shikamaru couldn't help but feel a little jealous towards the woman. Kakashi looked at their retreating back, "I didn't think he had enough manners to be polite like that." He wondered out loud "what's he up to?"

 

"Whatever it is, I'm sure he's going to mess up and be sent back here by her guards or something," Sasuke stated uncaringly.

 

Thirty minutes later and Naruto returned to the office with a smile on his face. Shikamaru frowned at his husband as he came back to stand next to him. "What are you so happy about?" He asked.

 

"Oh nothing much, but we just got invited to a tea party," Naruto said happily to his mate.

 

"A tea party? Us? By who?" Shikamaru was confused,  _"it couldn't have been with the Dimio's wife, could it?"_

 

As if reading his mind, Naruto nodded, "yep, the Dimio's wife, Lady Ann, is throwing a tea party for her eldest daughters newborn son. She invited me and you to attend and met them, isn't that great?"

 

"Great? I guess for you, but why'd she invite me?" Shikamaru asked curiously.

 

"I might have mentioned something about you to her, she seemed to really want to meet you after everything I told her." Naruto said happily, a bit of pride could be seen in his eyes as he spoke. Shikamaru didn't know if he should be nervous about that happy demeanor, or if he should be happy as well. Either way, there wasn't any way that they could pass up the meeting now if the Dimio's wife herself invited them.

 

Standing next to the couple, Sasuke folded his arms, "and what about me? Surely she would want to me, the last Uchiha."

 

"Huh? Uh, actually I didn't mention anything about you," Naruto said in his usual bored tone.

 

Sasuke frowned, "and why not? Didn't she ask?"

 

"Uh, no, actually, the conversation had to end at Shikamaru since we already arrived at her carriage by then." Naruto shrugged his shoulders, "maybe if you were nice to me before, I might have mentioned something about you. But whatever, I'm sure you'll get your chance to impress her soon enough."

 

Sasuke fumbled a bit but let it go. Before Kakashi had a chance to put in his two cents in the conversation, the Hokage cleared his throat, bringing them back to reality. "As I was saying, we still have a few D-rank missions that you guys can do, so take your pick." He said as he listed of 'missions' consisting of babysitting, picking up trash from the river, pulling weeds, and so on.

 

Nothing appealed to Naruto or the other two genins with him. So he raised his hand, "actually, we would like to request a C-rank mission this time."

 

"A C-rank?" Hiruzen raised his eyebrow, he looked to Kakashi, "do you approve of this?"

 

"Lord Hokage! You can't possibly be giving them a C-rank when they have only graduated the academy a month ago!" Iruka stated in surprise to the village leader.

 

"Actually, yes, Iruka, I am." Hiruzen stated giving the chocolate chunin a suspicious eye, "like you said, it's been a little over a month since they graduated so why not test the skills they've learned in the field. What hope will they have if they don't get some real experience in this line of work?"

 

"Ah, yes, Lord Hokage, my apologies," Iruka said while bowing apologetically to the kage. He would have protested more if not for the look the old man was giving him.

 

Hiruzen nodded and turned back to Kakashi, "well?"

 

Kakashi scratched the back of his head, "well, actually, Hokage-sama, I would agree with you. However, I h-don't feel like they are ready. I feel like I should train them a little more before they take on higher missions." He was able to stop himself from telling the old man the real reason why he didn't want to take his team on a higher mission.

 

Hiruzen narrowed his eyes at the Hatake, "I see. Well, I would like to test the training that you have given them, so I am going to be giving them this C-rank mission." He stated as he took out a scroll with a 'C' on it, "this mission's objective entails guarding a bridge builder on his way back home and while he's building his bridge. You are to protect him from bandits, thieves, and anyone that poses a threat to the mission objective. If you get to a point in this mission where you feel that it's not safe for you to go on, then I encourage to bring the bridge builder back to the village where he can be reassigned a team that is more suited. Is that understood?" 

 

The way that he said it, there was no room for arguments.

 

"Yes, Hokage-sama, I understand," Kakashi grudgingly accepted.

 

Sasuke smirked,  _"finally, a real challenge. I can use this as an opportunity to test my skills."_

 

"Hokage-Jiji, how long will this mission take?" Naruto asked since he was kicked out of class so often, he had no idea where, how far, or how long it would take to get to any place that was not already in the village. It was enough to say that he was Geographically Challenged, a truly criminal disorder.

 

"What the way you address the Hokage, brat," stated the no-named chunin. Who was ignored by the said brat.

 

"It shouldn't take you guys more than two to three weeks tops, judging from the mission details. Wave is about two days walk from fire country, at civilian pace, and about a day's run at a ninja's." Hiruzen said, not minding the nickname.

 

"Okay, good, that means we'll be back in time for the tea party," Naruto smiled at Shikamaru. His mate nodded, but at the back of his mind, Shikamaru was a little curious about Naruto's lack of knowledge, he knows that he was kicked out of class a lot, but he didn't realize that it was enough to actually make him clueless. He would need to talk to his mate about this later for more details.

 

"Alright, if everyone's set, let's bring in the client," Hiruzen nodded to Iruka who went to retrieve their client. A moment later, Iruka re-entered the office with a tipsy old man that smelled like boos, "everyone, this is Tazuna, the head bridge builder of Wave."

 

"Yeah, I'm the Awesome Tazuna, the greatest bridge builder!" He slurred a little, his eyes feel onto team seven and he pointed his hand, the one that still held his sake battle, at them. "This is the guys that are going to protect me? They're nothing but kids! Especially that little pipsqueak over there holding onto the blond..." Tazuna took a closer look at the team, "and why does that kid have a bird on his head?"

 

Naruto couldn't help but chuckle as Sasuke glared holes into the bridge builder. Kakashi had to hold the Uchiha back from throwing a shuriken into the man's throat, "calm down, Sasuke, you can't kill the client," he sighed.

 

Shikamaru held his nose as he held onto Naruto's arm. When Tazuna entered the room, the smell of sweat and alcohol coming off of him hit Shikamaru's nose like a train crash. Unknown to anyone but Naruto, Shikamaru's senses had heightened greatly because of his pregnancy, he could hear and see father before. Unfortunately, that meant he could smell Tazuna coming before he even entered the room, and the scent wasn't a welcomed one since it literally turned his stomach the longer he stood there. Naruto calmed his laughter when he noticed Shikamaru's grip tighten, realizing why he pulled Shikamaru into a side hug to comfort him.

 

"Don't worry Tazuna, they may be young, but they do have some skills." Kakashi stated letting go of Sasuke, "and if anything else, I'm a fully capable jonin, so there's nothing to worry about."

 

"Hn, well I hope so," Tazuna stated as he took another swig from his bottle, "anyway, when are we leaving?"

 

"We'll meet at the main gate in about an hours time. Until then everyone should go home and get ready to leave. Pack only the things that are needed, nothing else," the sensei ordered.

 

* * *

 

**Nara compound**

 

Shikamaru entered the house first and ran to the bathroom. Naruto entered second, but slower. He took off his backpack and left it by the door as he walked over to the kitchen to greet his in-laws. "S'up," and sat down across from Shikaku.

 

" 'S'up' is not a real word, Naruto, I told you that," Yoshino sighed irritatedly.

 

Which is why Naruto said it.

 

"I know," the blond stated with a fox-like smile.

 

Yoshino's eyebrow twitched as she turned away from what she was doing at the counter to glare at the blond. "Where's our son?" She asked, waiting for him to tell her that he ate him so that she could skin him alive and boil his bones. She had dreams about it every night.

 

"He's in the bathroom," Naruto said casually, smirking when he saw the sneer on her lips. He knew what she was thinking, he couldn't read minds, but he just knew.

 

Shikaku shook his head at the two's mind games and asked, "is he alright?"

 

Naruto turned to Shikaku and nodded, "yeah, he just needed to pee is all. He's been holding it since we left our babysitting mission to catch the cat an hour and a half ago."

 

"Oh, how did that go?" Yoshino asked, "does it make you feel guilty at all?" She came to sit at the table next to her husband so she could better see the guilt on her son-in-law's face.

 

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "why would that make me feel guilty?" He asked, "if anything, I'm inspired."

 

Both parents were curious by this comments if their shared look was anything to go on. "And why's that? What are you inspired about?" Shikaku asked.

 

"Well you should have seen Shika-chan with those kids, he was awesome!" Naruto raved with a truly proud smile, which made the parent's even more confused, this time about their usually lazy son. "They were three kids of some councilwoman, she left to do some shopping or something and wanted us to take care of her kids. Those little monsters turned into angels real quick once Shika-chan mentioned food and cool ninja stories. He went to cook the food while I told them stories with genjutsu, by the time their mom came back, they didn't want us to leave." By now Naruto's smile was almost as bright as the sun, it nearly split his face, Shikaku couldn't really picture his son doing the cooking since he ever really helped out with it before.

 

While Shikaku was trying to picture his son in the kitchen doing anything other than using the table as another napping spot, Yoshino was frowning. "And you're okay with this?" She asked.

 

"Hm?" Naruto came back to reality, "well yeah, he would make a great mother on-"

 

"That's not one I mean! You know damn well that no one in the village will let you adopt from their orphanage, so-" Yoshino exploded but Shikaku halted her ranting.

 

He could see that Naruto looked plenty confident that he would be having children one day. Even with the nature of their relationship. He wanted to know why, "do you have a plan on how to adopt a child of your own, Naruto?"

 

Naruto looked at both of them confused, "adopt?" He was confused by the word for a few long minutes until Kyuubi gave him the definition of what the word meant. "Oh! That! No, no, we won't really need to adopt someone else's child."

 

"Eh? Then how are you planning you get an heir to your own clan?!" Yoshino asked as she was reaching her limit of how many dumb things the blond could say.

 

"Well duh, I'm a jinturiki, I have the demon fox, Kyuubi in my gut, with his help we could easily have a baby," Naruto said while rolling his eyes. "Sheesh, and I thought I was supposed to be the dumb one."

 

Shikaku narrowed his eyes at Naruto, "so, what are you saying? Have you already done something to my son?" He asked, remembering the comment about his son being the 'mother', he didn't know if he liked where this was going.

 

"Well, yeah, I had to. How else would I have gotten children? The council already told me that I couldn't have children but that was when I was still in the academy. I'm a ninja now, not only that, I'm a clan head, so I have to have at least one heir to my clan for it to go on." Naruto explained.

 

Shikaku and Yoshino knew that much, but it still didn't answer the questions they had. "So, that means I'll be a grandmother one day after all," Yoshino asked after working it out in her head, suddenly her hate for the blond evaporated into one of hope. "Oh my gosh, how? How is it possible? How is he going to be able to have a child with you?" She asked curiously.

 

Shikaku was still glaring at the blond with sharp eyes. He wasn't about to forgive the blond if his son had to suffer. And after what he witnessed from his son's birth, he knew there would be a lot of suffering involved. "What did you do," he asked, his tone had a dangerous bit to it.

 

"Uh..." Naruto realized that he had already dug himself a hold, but if he didn't tell them, the hole would become ten times deep regardless. It was a good thing that he could feel Shikamaru's chakra signature coming down the stairs at the moment. From what he could guess about the amount of time he took, he assumed that he was packed and ready. This meant that they could both escape with their lives intact, "well, you see, and don't get mad when I say this," the blond said as he slowly got out of his chair.

 

"How could we ever be bad at the boy that already married our son behind our back," Shikaku stated as he also slowly got out of his chair.

 

Naruto took a few steps back from the table with Shikaku stepping around the table. "Okay, good point, well, I uh..."

 

"Hey Naruto, I'm ready-what's going in here?" Shikamaru asked as he entered the kitchen.

 

"Shika-chan be prepared to run," Naruto whispered to him.

 

"Huh? Why what's going?" Shikamaru asked looking between his father and husband.

 

"Yeah, Naruto, tell us, what is going on?" Shikaku asked menacingly.

 

"Hahaha, well, after graduation..." Naruto started as he backed his way out of the kitchen and threw a glance at the door and bag.

 

"After graduation..." Shikaku prompted as he took a few steps closer to the blond.

 

"Uh, uhm, w-well, Shikamaru and I had sex and now he's pregnant!" In a flash, Naruto had grabbed Shikamaru's hand and dashed out the front door while grabbing his backpack. Shikamaru's face was bright red as the words left Naruto's mouth, he was too embarrassed to say anything and just let Naruto sweep him away from the house as fast as his legs could carry them both.

 

After hearing those words, Shikaku burst into a flame of outrage and chased after the two of them, shouting threats of mutilation towards the blond for violating his son before marriage.

 

Or even dating him first!

 

And without their blessing!

 

He was going to kill him, if he could get his hands on him that is. As Shikaku chased the blond out the door, he caught sight of them jumping from rooftop to rooftop without missing a beat. He chased after them an caught up to them soon enough, but just when he was about one rooftop away from them, Naruto managed to speed up and turned into a yellow blur. Shikaku nearly missed a step and fell off the next roof as he realized that yellow streak, of course, he realized the Yondime's signature jutsu. the man used it all the time during the war and on occasions in the village, he was known as the YELLOW flash after all, and this only confirmed Shikaku's reasoning that Naruto had to be Minato's kid. Still, Yondime's son or not, Naruto still de-flowed his precious son and he would make damn sure that he knew of his wrath before he could congratulate the couple on the up and coming bundle. So, without any more hesitation, Shikaku picked up his own pace and turned into a blur of his own to follow them, even if he wasn't as fast he wasn't going to give up. As the yellow blur raced across town, many of the villagers were shocked. They thought that they would never see that yellow strike again, but with that black strike following the yellow, people were rushing off in the same direction. They wanted to see if their hero had truly come back from the dead or not.

 

**Meanwhile, at the main gate**

 

 

Tazuna and Sasuke had made it to the gate on time and were waiting for the rest of the team to show up. A few seconds later, Kakashi showed up. Sasuke was a little taken aback by that because that morning Kakashi had been nearly three hours late to their meet up. Kakakashi noticed the look and rolled his eyes, "oh don't give me that look, I do show up on time sometimes, you know," he said with a frown under his maks.

 

"Yeah, but it's usually not on th same day that you take three hours to show up." Sasuke stated matter of factly, "are you really Kakashi?"

 

Kakashi sighed, "why don't any of my genin respect me?"

 

Tazuna yawned, "so where are those two other brats? You know, the lovebirds?"

 

"They should ha-" Sasuke was cut off when Naruto suddenly appeared in front of the gate with a blushing Shikamaru in his arms. "Nevermind, they're here."

 

"Everyone's here? Good, let's get going!" Naruto said in a rushed manner as he held Shikamaru's hand and heaved his bag over his shoulder.

 

"Who made you boss," Sasuke asked folding his arms.

 

Naruto walked passed Sasuke through the gates, "does it matter, let's start the mission. The sooner that we get Tazuna back home, the less dangour he'll be in." He stated as Tazuna nodded his head in agreement,  _"and the faster I can get away from him!"_ He thought as he spotted Shikaku making his way over to the gate, and fast.

 

"Whatever, let's go, team," Kakashi said as they started heading out the village gate.

 

By the time the that SHikaku managed to make it to the gates, team seven and their client had already walked past the tree line that surrounded the village walls. "Tch, I'll get you next time, Uzumaki," he shoved his hands in his pockets and turned around. Only to be faced with a huge crowd, "uh, can I help you?"

 

"Shikaku-sama, have you seen the Yondime? Did he come this way?" An out of breath villager came over to ask him.

 

"The Yondime?" Shikaku asked scratching his head, he guessed that they meant Naruto, but knew they wouldn't believe him if he said that. So he shrugged his shoulders, "nope, I didn't see a thing." Then he made his way back home while the disappointed crowd tried to convince themselves that it was all a mass delusion caused by grief due to the upcoming events.

 


	12. Savior pt. 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, so I have decided to open up the poles for female characters too. Why? Because there are like no bi-harems only straight or yaoi ones so why not? Plus, we all know that everyone ships Naruto with everyone anyway so give me the best you got. Also, in my version of the wave arc, I would like you guys to give me suggestions on things that could happen to make things more interesting. For example, in one story I read, Naruto and some others helped break up a whore hours run by Gato. I would like to make the story more exciting and suspenseful to read.

The mission to Wave country so far, Naruto had mixed feelings. They had yet to really encounter any trouble, just a few small groups of robbers and bandits along the way that was trying to steal from the bridge builder. But they were taken care of by Sasuke and Naruto while Kakashi and Shikamaru stood back to protect Tazuna in case any of them got passed them. Other than that, the trip was uneventful, which made Naruto happy, but a little disappointed at the same time. Why? Because he really wanted to have more of a challenge other than bandits. Don't get him wrong, he didn't want some SSS rank missing ninja to suddenly jump out and try to kill them on a whim or whatever. That wouldn't sit well with him if it actually happened. Plus the fact that Shikamaru was about to go into his second stage of the pregnancy would defiantly leave him more vulnerable to attacks while on the mission. The Kyuubi also explained to him that after the first month of being pregnant, his mates will experience a fluctuation in their chakra that would affect their chakra control and current skill level making it much stronger. Seeing as how, in order to even carry children, especially Naruto's children, his mates would have absorbed some of Kyuubi's demonic chakra while they have sex. This is to make sure that the child/children they're carrying stay alive and healthy. Unfortunately, that means that any of his mates that go through the pregnancy will be unable to control their chakra, any jutsu they try to make will automatically be hard to control. That includes bloodlines. So, basically, it will be like they are starting their ninja training from their very first day because of this.

 

That's why Naruto was thankful that the mission to Wave would only take them a month. Thinking that the mission was only going to be keeping Tazuna and his family safe from bandits, robbers, and the like, he felt confident that they would be able to complete the mission with ease. He also felt that Shikamaru would not be in as much danger once they entered the village to start the second part of their jobs. In fact, Naruto could easily protect the old man with shadow clones and some of the small time seals that the fox showed him after passing Kakashi's bell test. Yes, Naruto thought the mission would be easy as soon as they entered the Wave village, in fact, he thought that the mission wasn't going to get any more exciting...

 

 **UNTIL** he saw that puddle...

 

Of course, Naruto wasn't stupid. He knew for a fact that it had not rained once in Fire country for a little under a week.

 

Of course, Naruto wasn't blind. He could clearly sense the chakra coming from the puddle as they neared it, thanks to Kyuubi heightening his senses. 

 

And of course, Naruto wasn't dense. He saw when Kakashi noticed the puddle as they walked right past it without stopping.

 

And yes, Naruto was mad about that. Why?

 

Because Kakashi is a jonin.

 

Because Kakashi is supposed to be the responsible adult that takes care of his team while they're out of the village. For the FIRST TIME ever.

 

And because of the seal that Naruto had placed on Kakashi, he  _knew_ the jonin knew because he read his mind. And what where Kakashi's thoughts when he saw the puddle you might ask? 

 

_"Hm, that puddle...it's a genjutsu. Feels like it's about chunin level strength, maybe I sho-wait. No, actually, let's see what my 'lovely' team can do about it. I'll just sit back and watch for now. I'm sure that Sasuke can take down a couple of chunins without a jonin present."_

 

With that said, Naruto found it to be a completely irresponsible thing for a jonin of Kakashi's caliber to do. So once they passed the puddle and two chains shot out of it to wrap themselves around 'Kakashi', violently ripping him apart. Naruto didn't show any emotions on his face, he only looked down at 'Kakashi's' ripped up and bloody body on the floor for a second before turning his attention back to the two chunin ninjas that came out once 'Kakashi' was taken care of. By this point, Naruto wasn't about to walk around angry at the scarecrow of a ninja, instead, he decided he would take his anger out on the two chunin instead. 

 

He would deal with Kakashi later.

 

"One done," commented one of the Demon Brothers, a pare of chunin level missing ninjas from Kiri.

 

"One two to go," stated the other member of the duo as they rushed towards Shikamaru, Sasuke, and Tazuna.

 

The only reason they said two, was because they didn't see when Naruto had disappeared out of their sights. As they neared the remainder of the Konoha group with their client trying to hide behind the two of them, Sasuke prepared to fight. With a smirk on his face, the 'last' Uchiha waited for one of the Demon Brothers to get closer before making his move. The one with the clawed chains weapon on his right arm pulled back his arm and threw his chain at Sasuke, while the Uchiha jumped just in time for it to barely miss him. He took out two shurikens from his weapons pouch to pin the chain to the tree a few yards away from them, but he stopped when he saw someone else take his target. "What the..." was all he was able to say when he saw his blond teammate land foot first onto the man's back, bringing him crashing down to the ground with ease. He sneered at the blond's back and threw the stars anyway, just barely missing the blond but still hitting his target, the chains. Although he didn't end up pinning the chains to the tree like he wanted to, he still managed to pin them down in two spots on the ground, he quickly secured the shurikens in place with two kunai going threw them both before he landed and ran over to Naruto. He was about to yell at him to get out of the way, but the demon brother the blond landed on was already getting back up. Much to Sasuke's disappointment, the chunin, Kan, detached the chains from his claws and swung it at the blond to get him back for landing on him. Only to hit the air.  Sasuke decided that he would ignore the blond in favor of trying to take down the missing ninja, he took out another kunai and ran in to start a taijutsu match with kan. While Sasuke charged at Kan, the chunin got back to his feet and ran towards Sasuke, intending to take him down before moving onto the old man they're protecting. Kan brought down his metal claws onto Sasuke, but they were just barely blocked by the kunai in the boy's hands. Sasuke shoved the man backward and was about to try and stab him when a sweeping leg caught him off guard from out of nowhere and he fell to the ground, looking up, he saw Naruto standing over him in a ready position, he glared at the blond. "What the hell dobe? Are you trying to get in my way?" The Uchiha roared as he got back onto his feet.

 

Naruto said nothing at first as he ducked under the second swipe of Kan's metal claws. As for the first one? After Kan was pushed back, he pulled his clawed arm back and to a swing at the Uchiha. The hit would have knocked Sasuke's head clean off if it wasn't for Naruto tripping him. "I'm not in your way, you're in mine," Naruto said as he ran forward, dodging under another swing from Kan so he could deliver a swift kick to the man's stomach. The kick was reinforced with chakra, demon chakra, so without much effort, Naruto was able to make Kan fly back a few years, breaking a few ribs in the process. The blond made some shadow clones that surrounded the chunin as he was sent flying, they delivered a series of kicks and punches with just as much strength as their boss before the original came to deliver the finishing blow. Naruto used chakra to jump high up into the air at the same time that one of his clones sent Kan flying upwards due to a punch to the chest, breaking more ribs. Naruto lifted his foot up and let it fall onto the center of Kan's back to send him back to earth, this time it would take a while before the chunin got back up again. And if he tried to, he would be too in pain to stand or do much.

 

While this was happening, the demon brother with the clawed chain weapon on his left arm got ready to strike Tazuna down with Shikamaru. However, this guy also got a surprise when a fist came out of nowhere and uppercut him in his jaw. At first, the punch didn't seem to do very much, but then the chunin was suddenly flung up ten feet into the air before a foot came crashing down over his head just as quick and sudden as the fist did. The was that either brother was able to sense the person that was attacking them. Without warning, Naruto appeared at the chunin's side and gave him a hard kick with his steel-toed boots that sent the man flying off to the side a few feet away from Tazuna and Shikamaru. Naruto casually walked over to the man as he struggled to get the air back into his lungs, the chunin, Kin, glared up at Naruto as he got closer. He couldn't believe that he was kicked so hard by a little brat, but he had a job to do and he would make sure he did it well. Using his weapon as leverage, Kin got up from the ground and shushined out of sight from Naruto, the blond paused in his steps. He had only been three feet away from the man when he disappeared, but a quick glance upwards and Naruto was able to jump out of the way quick enough to completely miss the chains that were about to capture him from above. Taking out a few kunai from his pouch, Naruto ran towards the tree, away from Kin, while doing hand signs. However, Kin didn't see him doing the signs and chuckled, "ha, damn brat's only a genin, I can't blame him for trying to save himself." He chuckled as he turned towards Tazuna and Shikamaru, "looks like it's only the two of you against me now," only to see no one there.

 

Meanwhile, using the time that Naruto had given, Shikamaru had enough sense to grab Tazuna's hand and run towards the forest. If it hadn't been for his ninja training from his parent's, Shikamaru might have still been standing in the same spot, scared as he watched Naruto and Sasuke fight the brothers. But no, he was a Nara, and if Nara's did anything better than sleep and complains, it was thinking. And Shikamaru was definitely going through the different scenarios of what would happen if he didn't get up and leave when he did. The second that Naruto had suddenly appeared and punched the Kin in the jaw was the very second that Shikamaru grabbed Tazuna's hand and they ran towards the forest. Was it the brightest thing to leave his two teammates behind to run into the forest when there could be others like the Demon Brothers laying in wait? No. Was Shikamaru willing to stand by and act like a useless flesh-shield while his mate and teammate did their share of the work? Hell no! He had a baby inside of him for Kami sakes, he wasn't about to die before he became a dad himself, so he did what he thought was the better option. When the two entered the forest, Shikamaru looked around, trying to see if there was anyone else there with them. He couldn't sense anyone, so far, and that could be either good or bad, he took out a kunai from his own pouch as they went a little deeper into the forest, trying to stay out of sight from the fighting. When he felt like they were far enough, he stopped and made Tazuna hid in a bush with him while he kept watching. The situation was less than ideal to relax in, and for an old man to suddenly run at the speed of a genin, which, even though not as fast as chunin, was still much faster than a civilian could ever run. And so suddenly too, that's why Tazuna had no complaints in hiding in the bushes with the Nara, so he could catch his breath. All of this stress was not good for his heart, and as old as he was, he could suffer from a heart attack if they weren't careful.

 

With that in mind, Shikamaru tried to calm his mind and think, even with everything that was going on. He could still hear the clashing of metal against metal and felt a little safe, but how long was left to be seen.  _"Okay, there are two missing ninjas that are after us, judging from their appearance, it has to be the Demon Brothers. I remember my dad showing me their pictures once last week so I would know their faces, as well as some others. In fact..."_   Shikamaru took off his backpack and started looking through it until he found the item and pulled it out, it was an orange and red book that said 'Bingo' on it.  _"Found it, let's see,"_ he read the book's description of the demon brothers, he was looking for some kind of weakness, even though he was using it wouldn't be spelled out in black and white, he still looked. _"Okay, looks like they were best together, but..."_ Shikamaru wasn't sure that he wanted to take his chances to see if his teammates could defeat the brothers on their own or not, they were chunin and his team was a genin team. Not to mention that their no good sensei had yet to actually teach them anything AT ALL, they were screwed if they didn't have a miracle happen for them right now.  "Damnit, what are we supposed to do against them? And why are missing ninjas chasing after us anyway?" He wondered out loud, it didn't make sense to him, they were only protecting a bridge builder, not the Lord to some powerful land. So why?

 

Now Tazuna was feeling the guilt of what he had done and could no longer take it. "Oh, kid, I'm sorry, this is all my fault," the bridge builder said after he caught his breath.

 

"Huh? Yours?" Shikamaru asked, "are they after you, did you offend them in some way on the way to our village?"

 

Tazuna shook his head, "no, nothing like that. But, the thing is, well, my village is very poor. Even our Dimo has lost a lot of money, especially since Kiri is fighting with themselves, we haven't had the best of luck." He explained, "about nine years ago, this tyrant named Gato came to our village and took over our ports, using them for his own purposes. He brought in boatloads of men to help him take over our village, in a little under a year, our already poor country was crippled by Gato. He took control of the only source of income the village really had left to survive, soon after that, he started demanding taxes from us if we ever wanted to use the port again to make any money. If we did manage to make any money doing anything, Gato's taxes would rob us blond and we would be back where we started. The year after Gato took over our trading routes, he started to terrorize the town, anyone that was too indebted to him would be offered a way to get out of the debt. Yet, the prices to do that were just as high, if not more so. Women, children, young men, it didn't matter, Gato would take them all. There were orphans running in the streets because of that man..." Tazuna clenched his fist as a tear escaped his eye, "Any time Gato found someone that opposed him, he made sure to turn them into an example to the other by publicly killing them before the villagers and their loved one's very eyes. He would take the women and children back to his base and do unspeakable things to them that leave them broken on the inside and out. If Gato finds someone that he finds he really wants, male or female, no matter how young, he would take them to his HQ. None of them would be seen again. That's why I'm building the bridge, so we can have a new, better source of income and maybe even free ourselves from Gato once and for all. I guess when Gato heard that I left, he must have put together what I was doing and is no trying to kill me. But I cannot allow my village to go on like it has been, a shell of its former self."

 

The silence between the two was broken by a familiar voice. "You should have thought about that before you came to the village," the two turned around to see Naruto standing on the other side of their hiding spot. He had a frown on his face as he looked at the old man surprised face, he sighed, "but...since your village is in dire need for help, I'll see if we can't help you out a bit. But next time, try not to lie to us, okay?" He asked with a raised brow, Tazuna had a look of hope in his eyes that made Naruto feel like he was making the right choice.

 

Or was he? As it stood, their C rank mission was now turning into a B rank mission with the possibility of getting an even higher ranking in the future if what Tazuna said was true. Then again, Naruto was thinking about how he wanted more of a challenge on the mission, but this might have been a tiny bit much for him. He still had Shikamaru's condition to think about. Yet, if it was his own village...

 

He would let them suffer and burn in hell.

 

But if it was, say, Shikamaru that was in the village's position, then he would gladly take the mission. No questions asked. 

 

Now then time to deal with a certain scarecrow. "Come on, let's regroup with the other's, Kakashi's taken care of the last chunin we were fighting," Naruto stated as he helped Shikamaru and the old man to their feet. They followed Naruto out of the forest to see a completely fine Kakashi and a pissed off Sasuke waiting for them while the demon brother duo was sitting off to the sided, tied up. Most likely unconscious as well. 

 

Once the trio was out of the forest, Kakashi turned to them, "ah, nice to see you again, Naruto. I was starting to wonder if you had been caught by some rouge monkeys or something." The jonin joked, but he didn't get a response, at least, not a verbal one.

 

Naruto glared at the silver-haired man, "why did you pretend to be dead when you knew this was our first mission?" He asked as he narrowed his eyes at the jonin.

 

"Hm, so you noticed that wasn't the real me, huh?" Kakashi said remembering how Naruto only looked at his 'corpse' with a look of boredom as if he meant nothing to him. It sort of hurt a little to see, but he brushed off the feel, for now. "My goal for this was to see how well you guys handled the pressure of being on your own. Without me there to guide and tell you what to do, I wanted to test your teamwork and see what needed to be improved in other areas. From what I saw, Sasuke here has the best skills for taijutsu and Naruto, you weren't that bad either, however, I have to admit that both your teamwork skills and form need work. As for Shikamaru, it was good thinking for you to protect the client as well as you did, although, next time, maybe you should check to see if there are more enemy ninjas lurking about before you run off and leave your teammates behind."

 

The more Kakashi talked, the less Naruto liked what he had to say. "And what about you, Kakashi? I don't think it was very wise for you to make us unexperienced genin take on such a mission if you thought so lowly of our skills. Well, except Sasuke, that is, he seems to be your favorite, doesn't he?" He asked as he folded his arms in front of him, narrowing his eyes at the jonin as he waited for him to say something to deny it.

 

"Don't be ridiculous, Naruto, as a jonin sensei, I don't play favorites." Kakashi folded his arms in front of himself as away, watching Naruto's stare. "And what makes you say that now? I already told you what I thought of your performance as a team and I can clearly see that more training is needed."

 

"We would actually need to be trained by you to actually need more of your training, Kakashi," Naruto replied back. "Matter of fact,  _sensei_ now that we've encountered missing ninjas on our trip, why don't you tell us what we're going to be doing next? I would  _love_ to hear your thoughts."

 

"Hn, we're going to find out why these two missing ninjas were after our group in the first place." He said as his eyes landed on Tazuna, Kakashi to a step towards the bridge builder and asked, "well? You seem to know something, don't you Tazuna?"

 

Tazuna was shaking from the glare he was getting from Kakashi before he could open his mouth, Shikamaru did. "His village has been taken over by a man that wants to see them crippled. He's building the bridge so that his village can be free from him." The Nara explained as he placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder to calm him down, he could tell from the way the blond's shoulders that he was angry. And angry Naruto isn't a very helpful on, or at least he assumes that would be the case, he rarely ever sees Naruto upset about anything. This is the first time he's actually witnessed the blond getting so angry, "as it stands, he needs our help."

 

"Hm...if that's the case, then we'll need to head back to the village to reassign the mission to someone else. This will be classified as a B rank because of the Demon Brothers." Kakashi motioned to the two knocked out ninjas behind them, "you really should have told us what was going on back at the village so that this mission had gone to a team more-"

 

"BULLSHIT!" Naruto exploded, surprising everyone.

 

"What was that, Naruto?" Kakashi asked, getting a little annoyed by the blond.

 

"You heard me, what you're saying is total bullshit! Get someone that's more suited? We would have been perfect for something like this if you had taken at least a second out of your porn reading to teach us. But no, all you've been doing ever since we became your team was send us on stupid D ranked missions that shouldn't even be called missions in the first place. The civilians only want us ninjas to do their dirty work while they sat back and relaxed in the shade!" Naruto stated as he glared at Kakashi, "you try to call that 'teamwork building' while I say you're only wasting our time. What can we learn from painting fences and pulling weeds? Nothing, that's what, and if you think I'm going to sit back and let you say that my teamwork skills are worthless, then think again." He turned to Sasuke, "your taijutsu may be good, but it's not great, you have several holes in your form that you should fix, just like I told you in our last spar." Sasuke glared at the blond but said nothing as Naruto turned to Shikamaru, "as for you, you did the best you could, however, you I will be making sure that you get better. I refuse to leave my mate defenseless while I'm trying to protect you."

 

Shikamaru blushed a little when Naruto called him his mate in front of their client. "U-uh, y-ye-yeah, o-okay," he said as he poked his index fingers together. A habit he picked up after hanging out with Hinata more after they all became genin.

 

"That's not a bad attempt at my job, Naruto, but y-" Kakashi started but was cut off.

 

"And as for you, Kakashi Hata, I'm disappointed in you," Naruto stated.

 

"Me? What did I do?" Kakashi asked, oblivious, or maybe just ignorant of is own actions. Or inactions.

 

"Like I said before, you would need to actually train us first before you start telling us what more we need to do. For the fact that you had a little over a month to actually train us and teach us anything worth wild, you only used the time to send us on missions. And because of that simple fact, our team is the only one that has yet to be taught by their senseis," Naruto said as he pointed an accusing finger at Kakashi.

 

Sasuke was starting to get tired of not understanding what Naruto was saying fully, sure he knew that his sensei was a lazy guy. Yet, he always left to go back to his compound to do training of his own, so he never really cared about what they did as a team anyways. Still, he was a little curious, "what are you talking about Naruto?'

 

Naruto put a hand on his hip and sighed, "seriously Sasuke, get out of your own little world and wake up. What do you think a genin team is supposed to do when they are established." Sasuke rolled his eyes, so Naruto continued, "fine, I'll get to the point. Kakashi over here was supposed to teach us things chakra control, combat, formation, and teamwork skills, not just teamwork. In fact, some of our classmates have already mastered water and tree walking, two very basic techniques that a genin needs to learn perfect chakra control. I don't know about me and Shika-chan, but has he taught you either of those things?"

 

"No, he hasn't," Sasuke stated getting Naruto's point. he turned his glare onto Kakashi, the jonin frowned at the Uchiha.

 

He didn't expect Naruto to bring that up or have Sasuke on his side. "Alright, fine, once we get to the village, we'll start practicing, now come on. We can still make it to the border of Wave before nightfall if we pick up the pace."

 

"Wait, you still want to go on?" It was Tazuna that said this as all three genins were glaring heatedly at Kakashi. "Didn't your kage say that you should return to the village if you don't feel like you can handle it?"

 

"That may have been what he said, but we are still capable of handling things. Or at least some of us are," Kakashi said glancing down at Naruto before turning around to deal with the demon brothers. "We are going to continue as planned, I'll handle any other threats that come our way from here on out," Tazuna wasn't so sure about Kakashi's teaching skills by this point. And judging from the looks on the genin's faces, they didn't like it either.

 

All three genin were glaring at Kakashi for varying reasons. Shikamaru because he didn't think it was smart for a genin team to head into a mission with misleading information and then continue the mission because their sensei says so. It wasn't a smart move and he thought Kakashi would have known that. Sasuke was glaring at Kakashi because of his realization of what he was missing out on, how could he achieve his goal to kill his brother without being properly trained? He made a promise to himself at that moment that if Kakashi kept this up, once he reached the leaf village again, he was going to demand that he be reassigned a new sensei. As for Naruto's hateful glare at Kakashi, it was because of Kakashi's clear lack of disregard for their safety that really boiled his buns. He was going to make sure that Jiji hears about this as soon as possible. So, it was clear to say that all three genins had a common enemy in mind that was slowly uniting them. Because of this, their bond as a team would only grow.

 

"I object, I saw that we should head back to the village, or at the very least call for reinforcements," Shikamaru spoke up.

 

"I second that motioned," Naruto stated, for obvious reasons. It was smart and the right thing to do, plus his mate wouldn't be in as much danger.

 

"Hn, I agree," Sasuke grunted.

 

"Yeah, even if we have to go all the way back, at least it's better than sending these kids into the unknown because of me." Tazuna stated, he knows what he did was wrong, but what Kakashi was trying to do seemed crazy, what if Gato sent someone much stronger than the Demon Brothers after him next? This mission could turn into a suicide!

 

Kakashi was starting to see that he wasn't going to be able to reason with any of them, so he agreed to their demands. "Fine, we'll rest for a little while as I send a message to the village saying that we need reinforcements. Happy now?" 

 

"Hn, not until this over," Naruto said as he picked up his backpack that he had dropped at the beginning of the fight. He took Shikamaru's hand and started walking, "come on Shika-chan, let's go find somewhere cool to rest. I can catch us some rabbits while we wait."

 

Tazuna and Sasuke decided to follow Naruto's lead, "wait up dobe," Sasuke said not even glancing back at their sensei. Tazuna turned back to look at Kakashi for a second and shook his head at him before continuing to follow the boys. Leaving Kakashi by himself with the tied up brothers.

 

* * *

 

"So, dobe, what do you know about this tree-walking thing you mentioned?" Sasuke asked once they found a place to rest and set up camp.

 

"I know how to do it if that's what you're trying to find out," Naruto stated as he started the fire to cook the rabbits he caught.

 

"Hn, teach it then," the Uchiha stated.

 

"That's not how you ask for things, Sasuke," Shikamaru yawned from his place inside the tent Naruto set up for the two of them. 

 

Once Naruto got the fire going, he tossed a kunai to Sasuke, "first things first, when you go up the tree, walk, don't run. It might seem like it would help you learn it faster, but it will only make you tired sooner. Focus the chakra to the bottom of your feet and then start walking up a tree of your choice."

 

Sasuke raised an eyebrow, he didn't really expect the blond to tell him all this so easily. Usually, they would be having an argument on if the blond will or will not do what the Uchiha asked. He looked at the kunai, "what's this for?' 

 

"Mark your progress," Naruto said as he skinned the rabbits for the fire.

 

Sasuke shrugged his shoulders and went off to find a tree close by to start practicing. Shikamaru watched Sasuke leave before turning back to Naruto, "please don't tell me you're considering him for the CRA."

 

Naruto shrugged his shoulders, "why not? He's got strong genes, plus I think once we explain things, he'll be more than happy to help." He explained, "besides, he'll be achieving one of his goals as well so it's nothing too big to worry about."

 

"Hmm, yea, but still, I don't like his attitude, he's very bossy and spoiled," Shikamaru stated as he rolled onto his back so he was looking at Naruto upside down.

 

Naruto shook his head, "nah, it's not really his fault. The council made him think he was entitled to everything when he lost his family and clan that night when we were eight. I think once we open his eyes to the reality of things, then he'll start to come around."

 

Tazuna was listening to the conversation and could help but feel a little sorry for the Uchiha. "Are there a lot of kids in your village that lost their families?" He asked.

 

Naruto looked up at him for a second to nod before going back to preparing their meal. "Yeah, but that just comes with the job. Some kids are orphaned because their parents got killed on missions or were captured by enemy ninjas. It's a tough life we live," he stated.

 

"Sounds pretty rough," Tazuna stated solemnly, he couldn't imagine his grandson or daughter living such a life.

 

Naruto shook his head, "once you get used to how tough it is when your younger, you become a little numb to it. It's like seeing a starry night's sky for the first time, or a full moon. When you really look at it, tou realize that it's been this way all along." The comment was sagely, it almost made the blond seem like he was almost a thousand years old. But when you look at him, he still looked like a kid. It made Tazuna wonder about him while Shikamaru frowned, he didn't know if he wanted to know what Naruto had been through to sound like that. From what he was able to see over the years, he didn't think he wanted to find out after all. 

 

Meanwhile, Kakashi sat in a tree away from the rest. He didn't send the message for backup just yet, he still thought that they would be able to handle the mission as is. No one was hurt. No one got captured. So why not keep going? Sure he would admit that he should call for back up or even turn back, but there was something in the back of his mind that said that he should go on. Something that said that this was no big deal, and he agreed. He was a jonin, and not just any jonin, he was Kakashi Hatake, the Copy Ninja of the Leaf. He's copied thousands of hundreds of jutsus over the years, he should be able to keep his team and one old man safe until they got to the village. He was strong and he was able, so he could protect them all...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Right?

 

 

**To be continued**


	13. Savior pt. 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a bit of a surprise for you guys two chapters from this one. But first, I would like someone to give me a name of a place that you think could exist in Naruto. I'm not talking about inside the Elemental Nations, instead, think outside of it. Naruto and Shikamaru are going to be doing some traveling so and I would like a place for them to go. You don't have to be very detailed about the place, however, you can if you want to.

After the rabbits were cooked, Naruto passed them out to Shikamaru and Tazuna. Then he let to go find Sasuke, seeing as how the Uchiha would be eager to start practicing tree walking, he knew that he would find him further into the forest. However, it didn't take long to figure out how far Sasuke had gotten with the exercises before Naruto showed up because as soon as Naruto spotted the boy, he had to rush over to save him. Why? Because when Sasuke was just about to pass the halfway mark of the tree he was using, he lost his control and started to fall, but not before he marked his progress on the tree that Naruto gave him. Luckily enough for the Uchiha, Naruto was just in time to catch him before he crashed to the floor, Sasuke was actually thankful for the blond catching him because he was runny dangerously low on chakra. After walking for nearly half a day, then fighting a band of bandits, and then being suddenly surprised by chunin leveled missing ninja before confronting their no good sensei. Not to mention being so eager to train in chakra control...Sasuke was sure that he would have broken his neck in that last fall just now, he was almost sure he would have, which was why he had closed his eyes. He thought that he could brace himself for the pain that way and deal with it later when he had more strength, but the pain never came.

 

"So, do all Uchiha's like working themselves to exhaustion? Or is it just you?" 

 

Sasuke opened his eyes when he finally realized that he was no longer falling. When his eyes opened, they quickly widened in shock as he wondered when he made it to the ocean. He had heard people mention what it looked like before, but never got the chance to see it, it was beautiful...Then he blinked and realized he was staring into Naruto's eyes. He's never been so closed to the blond to ever notice how truly blue his eyes were, they sparked like the surface of the ocean and shined brightly. His tanned skin was perfect, smooth and flawless, even his whiskers looked like they belonged there. His hair looked like the sun, Sasuke realized, and then he saw the smile. Well, it was more of a smirk than a smile and...but why was his heart suddenly so loud in his ears? 

 

"I'll take it that you're too tired to walk back to camp on your own. Shall I carry you then?" Naruto asked, bringing Sasuke back to the land of the living.

 

Or maybe he was slowly sending him to death with the way Sasuke's heart had skipped a beat why the blond started speaking. Sasuke finally took note of their position, he was not only being held up by Naruto but in fact, he was in his arms. Bridal style! "Wha-PUT ME DOWN DOBE!" Sasuke yelled at the blond out of embarrassment, he could feel his cheeks heating up but would not admit that it was from the blond. It was their closeness, yes, that had to be it.

 

"Are you sure about that Sasuke? Your chakra feels pretty low to me, maybe I-" Naruto started.

 

But Sasuke shouted his command again, "I said put me down, NOW!"

 

The blond shrugged his shoulders, "fine, have it your way," he set Sasuke down so that his feet were connected to the earth. 

 

"Hn, now let's head back, I'm starving," Sasuke said angrily as he turned towards the direction he thought the camp was in. He was going the wrong way, but it didn't matter because as soon as he took one step, or tried to anyway, he fell forward. Face falling into the dirt as if it were a pillow.  _"Damnit, I nearly forgot how tired I am, looks like that dobe will have to carry me back to camp after all..."_ he thought begrudgingly as he laid in the dirt. Unable to move a muscle because he was too tired.

 

Naruto smirked at his view, "you know, for an Uchiha, you've got a pretty fine ass. Maybe you should cool your attitude a little and let someone give you something good."

 

Sasuke stiffened, he had no idea what Naruto meant by that, but he didn't care. For now. "Whatever, just get me out of here!" He yelled again so that the sound of his voice could be heard through the dirt, as he waited for Naruto to help him up, his cheeks heated up a little more.

 

"Oh, you want my help, are you really unable to move from that spot?" Naruto asked as he crouched down over Sasuke to get a better look at him. When Sasuke fell forward, his shirt lifted up to show a defined curve in Sasuke's lower back before it blended in with his covered butt. Naruto was tempted to see what those cheeks looked like, but he could feel Sasuke's patience running out, he sighed, "alright fine, have it your way." He then picked up the Uchiha like a sack of potatoes, tossing him over his should, he could tell by the way the other boy was fussing at him that he was now truly embarrassed.

 

"What the hell do you think you're doing, dobe! Unhand me at once! I am an Uchiha, I deserve respect!!" Sasuke fumbled.

 

Naruto chuckled a little, finding this to be quite funny,  _"I wonder if Shika-chan would mind a sleepover tonight..."_ He wondered as his smirked turned into an evil grin, now that he had Sasuke hung over his shoulder, he had a perfect view of the shape of his butt. From what he could see through the shorts Sasuke was wearing, even though they weren't tight at all, he could tell that they were round. They looked slightly bigger than Shikamaru's sweet ass, but that was only because Shikamaru was still gaining a healthy weight. 

 

_Smack_

 

 

Sasuke gasped at the sharp slap his ass received from seemingly nowhere. He's never had anyone slap his ass before, it was even more embarrassing than being carried like a sack of flower! Of course, there was only one person around that was responsible for that slap, "Naruto! Watch where you're putting those hands, what are you? A pervert or something?!" He yelled as he glared at the back of the blond's...back.

 

"Oh no, I'm not, but I can be if my mate would like. Shikamaru says that I slap hard, did you find that to be hard?" Naruto asked in a casual tone, even though the grin never left his face.

 

"Why you-of course that was hard! Why the hell are you slapping my ass anyway? Isn't Shikamaru enough for you?" Sasuke asked, his anger was rising with his embarrassment.

 

"Oh, well how could I possibly forget about my dear Shika-chan, I should see what he thinks." Naruto said before delivering another smack to Sasuke's ass and started walking back to the camp.

 

Sasuke could have jumped out of Naruto's grasp right then and there if he hadn't have used up so much energy before. "You'll pay for this later, dobe."

 

"Don't worry, Sasuke, no one else has to know about this," Naruto said as they made it back to the camp. Walking over to the fire, he glanced at Shikamaru.

 

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow, "what's wrong with him?"

 

"Chakra exhaustion," Naruto said as he sat Sasuke down by the fire before handing him some meat. "You'll be fine once you eat and rest," he winked at Sasuke's angry, blushing face.

 

Sasuke only grumbled and looked away from the blond before he started eating. Tazuna also raised an eyebrow at the display, he was confused, "what going on here? I thought blondie was with you," he asked turning to Shikamaru.

 

Shikamaru sighed, "well, I am his first mate, but he still needs others to marry." He frowned, it wasn't that he didn't want Naruto to marry other people, he just wished that Sasuke wasn't the first person he chose. 

 

Naruto sensed Shikamaru's displeasure and walked over to him, "what's up, Shika?"

 

"Nothing," Shikamaru answered.

 

"Oi, kid, Shikamaru said you need others to marry, why's that?" Tazuna asked Naruto.

 

"Hm, oh, it's for my clan, I just became a clan head of my own clan since I'm the last of two," Naruto explained.

 

"You're a clan head? But you're so young," Tazuna stated. Then he remembered what was said earlier, "are there a lot of young clan heads like you in your village?"

 

Naruto shook his head, "I wouldn't exactly say that. Even though I'm sure when they were chosen to be clan heads, they were at a fair enough age to be put in charge of their clan. However, if I were to guess, I would say that I was the first, and probably only twelve-year-old clan head in the history of our village."

 

"Ah, I see, and how does this clan business work?" Tazuna asked, "I mean, it couldn't really be all that simple to just up and start a clan just like that. There have to be some steps that had to be taken, right?"

 

Shikamaru nodded, "yes, actually, in order for someone to start a clan, they need to go through the Hokage. That's the leader of our village, if he approves, then the person will have to also sign a CRA contract where they have to take multiple partners to help grow the clan. While they do that, they must also choose what set of skills they have that could benefit the village. It could be anything from making herbs for medicine, selling and making food, or security detail for the village, as long as it's helpful in some way. There's also a lot of politics involved in putting together a clan, he needs a seat on the council." He sighed, "but he's still only a genin without a lot of support from anyone in the village, he doesn't have much hope of actually get the seat. Which is bad because the council only gave him about two months to find a representative or they might appoint one for him."

 

"Would that be such a bad thing?" Asked the old man.

 

"In my case, it would be," Naruto said with a frown.

 

"In a ninja village, secrecy among the clans is expected." Shikamaru put in, "knowing the inner workings of a clan could possibly benefit the civilian side more than the shinobi side. If they were to appoint a representative for him now because of his age, then the council will surely try to make his clan bend to their will."

 

"Wow, that sounds diabolical of them, why would they want to do such a thing?" Tazuna asked, confused about the political workings of a ninja village. "Just when I thought that regular politics was a pain to deal with," he shook his head and sighed. "So then, what will you do? I assume that you still have time left over to find a representative for your clan, right?"

 

Naruto shrugged his shoulders, "I'm not sure, there's no one in the village that will be willing to be my representative. So I really need to focus on that most importantly after I get back to the village, among other things." 

 

"I see..." Tazuna finished his meal before getting up and stretching his muscles, "well, we might as well came out here tonight seeing as how it's already sunset right now." 

 

"Huh?" Naruto and Shikamaru looked up to the sky to realize that he was right, "well, would you look at that."

 

"Yep, if we turn in now, we can all get up right and early tomorrow morning to continue our journey." Tazuna started for his tent, "goodnight guys, see you in the morning."

 

"Hn, we should get some sleep too, Shika-chan," Naruto said as he moved to sit inside the tent with Shikamaru.

 

Shikamaru smirked, "really? Just us?"

 

"Ne, what are you saying, Shika-chan?" Naruto asked with a sly smirk on his face, "did you want to share our tent with someone?" You c1ouldn't tell from the outside of the tent since it looked like a regular tent. But on the inside, thanks to a dimension seal Kyuubi taught him the week after he became a genin, after applying the seal, the inside of the tent became the size of a three bedroom house. "I mean, we do have enough room."

 

"When I saw you bring Sasuke back the way you did, I thought you would bring him in here with us. But, it's fine," Shikamaru chuckled, retreating further into the tent.

 

"Ne, ne, are you in the mood or something, Shika-chan? I can help you out with that y'know~" Naruto sang following Shikamaru.

 

Shikamaru yawned and stretched his arms, "aah, I would love to, babe, but my backs been killing me since the whole chunin incident earlier. I think I'll just head to bed on my own." The Nara said as he slipped under the covers of the bed he made up for them after Naruto set up the tent and placed the seal. 

 

Naruto frowned at his first mate but wouldn't push him, "fine, you can rest," he said as he turned and walked out of the tent.

 

"Hm, where are you going?" Shikamaru asked from under the covers, he was curious, but he had a feeling that he already knew the answer.

 

"To have some fun..."

 

* * *

 

**With Sasuke**

 

Sasuke had listened to the conversation between Tazuna and his two teammates. He was intrigued when he heard that Naruto was getting his own clan, he didn't think that the Hokage, let alone the council would ever allow it. He was going to find out more about it later when he got back. As he finished his meal, Kakashi came over to him, "hey, Sasuke, I just want to let you know that once get to Wave, I'll be training you in the tree walking technic."

 

"Hn, Naruto already told me how it works," Sasuke said as he tossed the bones into the fire and watched it burn.

 

"He what?" Kakashi shook his head and sighed, "whatever, I'll show you how it really works."

 

"You mean you're not supposed to focus your chakra to the bottom of your feet and then try to see how far up you can walk up the tree?" Sasuke asked, almost sarcastically.

 

"Er, em, yes, that's how it goes..." Kakashi frowned, it seemed that Naruto knew a thing or two after all. "Fine then, once we get to Wave I'll teach you something else."

 

Sasuke turned to the silver-haired male with a raised eyebrow, "oh yeah? Like what?"

 

Kakashi smirked under his mask, "you'll have to wait and see. But for now, get some rest, we still have a ways to go come morning," he said as he walked away.

 

Sasuke was intrigued by this, however, after what happened earlier, he didn't hold too high a hope for the jonin. He would need to see what the man had to offer before he jumped for it. As he was thinking this, he noticed Naruto making his way over to him, "hey, what did he want?" Asked the blond as he sat down next to him.

 

"Hn, nothing. Said he was going to start teaching me something when we got to the old man's village," Sasuke responded as he turned back to the fire.

 

"Just you?" Naruto raised a brow and Sasuke smirked.

 

"You jealous, dobe?"

 

Naruto shrugged his shoulders, "not really. I would need to see it to believe it." Sasuke frowned, he agreed with the blond, but he didn't want to admit it twice in one day. The two stayed silent for a little while before Naruto broke it, "so, you want to share a tent? I noticed that you didn't set up yours yet before you exhausted yourself with training. Plus, I doubt your strength has returned to you so soon after sitting down to eat..." 

 

Sasuke frown deepened,  _"damn it, I totally forgot about setting up a tent. I thought we were only just going to be taking a small break whereas I could get in a bit of training before we started walking again. The only tents that are set up right now are Naruto's and that old bridge builder. What should I do? Do I really have to sleep in the same tent as the dobe and his lover boy?...Especially after what happened earlier?!"_ The Uchiha blushed a little when his mind went back to the sharp slap he had felt on his ass from his blond teammate. He had a feeling that if he slept in the same tent as them, he might end up losing his virginity, and he wasn't ready for that. At least he didn't want to have to lose it to the blond while his boyfriend was sleeping right next to them while they did it. That thought already made his cheeks feel like they were heating up again already. Sasuke shook his head,  _"no! Stop thinking that way, you're an Uchiha, of course, you'll be on top when-NONONONO! Stop thinking like that, besides, you're not even gay, Sasuke. Get it together!"_ The Uchiha clenched his fist and nodded his head with his internal pep talk to convince himself, although his cheeks still turned a little red while he thought about it.

 

While Sasuke was having his internal struggles, Naruto was watching him carefully. He chuckled, which dress Sasuke completely out of his own thoughts. "What's so funny dobe!" Sasuke asked indignantly.

 

"Oh nothing, did you know that you're blushing right now?" Naruto asked casually and chuckled some more when a surprised look came onto Sasuke's face.

 

Sasuke turned away from the blond, "I'm not blushing, dobe, what do you know."

 

Naruto smirked, "I guess I must be going blind then, oh well, I kinda thought it was cute."

 

This comment, surprisingly or not, made Sasuke blush even more. "S-shut up!"

 

"Ooh, and now he's stuttering, man, I did not think Uchiha's stuttered. Tell me, what other cute things can you do?" Naruto teased as he leaned closer to Sasuke.

 

 _"What the hell is going on? What's wrong with me? Why am I acting this way?"_ Sasuke asked himself in his mind as his cheeks grew a little darker from the closeness.

 

Before Naruto could tease Sasuke some more, Kakashi came back over, ruining the blond's fun. "That's enough Naruto, why don't you take first watch tonight since you have so much energy," he ordered.

 

Naruto frowned up at the jonin for a minute before he sighed and got up. "Whatever, I was just going to be anyways," he said before turning back to the Uchiha. "Goodnight, Sasu-chan, it was fun," Sasuke said nothing about the nickname he was given, instead, choosing to not make any eye-contact with the blond whatsoever until he calmed his heart back down. Naruto then began to walk away before pausing, "by the way,  _sensei_ did you send for back up yet?" He glanced at the jonin through the corner of his eye, waiting for a reply.

 

Kakashi frowned a the blond, but his voice was even, "yeah, yeah, they should be on their way shortly. Now go to bed and stop trying to pick on Sasuke."

 

"...Hm," was all he had to say before walking away from the two completely. On his way back to his tent, Naruto could already tell that Kakashi did not do what he asked before. Since the time that they settled down in the clearing, made camp, set a fire, and cooked food, Kakashi had yet to move very far from the tree he had been in. Naruto also didn't notice any ruffling of feathers or padding of paws to indicate that some kind of messenger animal had been sent back to the village to deliver their message. Naruto found this to be truly irresponsible of the jonin, even more so from the earlier events. With that thought in mind, Naruto made a shadow clone of his own after going into his tent and writing out a brief message to the Hokage about what was happening so far. Once the clone had the message, he saluted and ran away from the clearing under the cover of darkness to get back to the leaf. While the clone was on his way, Naruto decided that he had better make more shadow clones to take over the patrolling work so that he could get some sleep for himself. If the man, Gato, was really as rich and powerful as was mentioned, then he was sure that he would need all the rest he could get so that he could deal with that shit. Who knows what kind of ninja they could be going up against next,  _"for all we know, the next person to come after us might just be a jonin level missing ninja. Or worse."_ He glanced out of the tent flaps to star at Kakashi who was setting up a tent for Sasuke,  _"I'm pretty sure that with my luck, we might just end up facing a real badass. If we do and Shikamaru gets hurt...I'll make you pay dealy, Kakashi Hatake..."_   with that, he closed up the tent and went to bed. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**To be continued...**


	14. Savior pt. 4

The next morning, the group woke up, had breakfast, and erased their tracks before leaving the area. Walking along the path to Wave, Naruto had the sneaking suspicion that they were being watched. It wasn't until they reached the broader of Wave that Naruto could confirm the feeling to be real. After getting off the boat that crossed the river separating the village from the mainlands, a thick fog started to roll in. Naruto sense the chakra that was mixed in, it felt like at least jonin level chakra and it was filled with killing intent. It surrounded them as they walked and Naruto was sure that they would soon meet up with the creator of such a thick fog. As they got deeper into the forest, Naruto moved in closer to Shikamaru, this alerted Sasuke of his actions, normally he wouldn't bother with what his teammates were up to. Seeing as how most times, they were being all...coupley and stuff. But, ever since last night, Sasuke couldn't stop thinking about the blond and his actions towards him, so he listened in. 

 

"Hey, Shika, get ready..." Naruto said as he looked up to the trees that surrounded them as much as the fog.

 

"Huh? What's the matter?" Shikamaru asked, he was starting to get a little nervous because of how thick the fog was getting, "what's with this fog?"

 

Tazuna heard what the boy said and chuckled, "if its the fog you're worried about, then don't worry. Being surrounded by water all the time as we are, the mornings and nights usually bring about thick fogs because of the cool air hitting the water and vice-versa. I know it can be sort of unsettling when you first experience it, but trust me, the fog his armless," he laughed light-heartedly.

 

"Oh? so this is what dense fog feels like?" Shikamaru asked curiously as he looked around.

 

"This isn't fog, it's mist," Sasuke stated with a roll of his eyes.

 

"Huh? It is? What's the difference?" Tazuna asked, "I usually call them both fog since it's generally the same thing."

 

"Actually, Sasuke's right," Naruto states, "a fog would usually be over the water and will be really dense depending on the weather. A mist is much lighter and would normally never get this thick." He stopped and looked back in the direction that they just came from, "also, both mist and fog wouldn't be this far away from the water. We've already walked two miles and we've yet to be cleared from it." This made the others pause, even Kakashi couldn't deny the merit of what the blond said, "with that said, why's it taking so long for us to have a clearer vision? Even with a country surrounded by water like Wave is, I would have thought that the village would have been on a tiny island to be constantly covered in mist or fog like this. Yet, Wave is a country, much bigger than an island, so that leads me to wonder if this mist is man-made or nah."

 

This clicked in Tazuna's brain, "ah, yeah, I guess you're right. Wow, we've already walked so far? With this much mist around, it felt like we hadn't moved at all."

 

"Exactly," Naruto stated, "so that means-" just then something made a sound in a bush nearby and Naruto threw a kunai in that direction. There was an intense silence among them until a rabbit fell out of the bushes.

 

Shikamaru, Sasuke, and Tazuna all took a breath of relief. "Hn looks like you worked us up for nothing, eh, do-"

 

"Shut up Sasuke," Naruto said as he walked over to the frightened rabbit, he picked it up and brought it back to the group as he looked at his fur. He showed it to them, "look, when have you ever seen a rabbit with white fur in the middle of summer?" Looking down at the rabbit's fur, everyone took note of how white it was, so white in fact that it looked like snow. 

 

 _"With fur like that, this rabbit's been raised indoors. So then that must mean,"_ Kakashi's thoughts were interrupted when his senses picked up a sound. Suddenly the air was filled with danger, "everyone, get down, NOW!" Kakashi pulled down Sasuke, while Naruto and Shikamaru pulled the old man to the ground just as, what looked like, a giant knife came sailing through the air.

 

The large, knife-like sword wedged itself halfway into a nearby tree a few seconds before someone came in and landed on the edge. "Well, well, well, what do we have here? Sharingan Kakashi is taking on a babysitting service?" You already know who this is, ya boi Zabuza with the cow print leg warmers, rocking the shirtless and bandaged face look.

 

Upon seeing who it was, Kakashi realized that he needed to put everything into the fight. So he pulled up his headband so that it was resting fully on his forehead, revealing his special eye that was supposedly gifted to him. "Zabuza Momochi, A ranked missing ninja of the Hidden Mist Village." He drew a kunai from his pouch and addressed his team, "Naruto, Sasuke, Shikamaru, protect the bridge builder at all cost, I'll handle this.

 

"Hahaha, I've always wanted to fight against the infamous Copy Cat Ninja himself," Zabuza smirked from behind his bandages. He hopped off his sword and then ripped it out of the tree as if it were butter, "very well, show me what you got!"

 

* * *

 **Fight summery**  

 

After Kakashi and Zabuza started fighting, the mist around them got thicker to the point that no one could see a thing. The sound of metal against metal could be heard as the two jonin fought. At some point during the fight, Kakashi managed to weaken the mist jutsu, if only slightly, so that his genin team and their client could see the two once more. But that didn't matter because they were just in time to see Kakashi fall into the water, who he soon realize was heavier than regular water. With Kakashi falling into the water, he activated Zabuza's trap card, Water Prison Technique, and trapped the Copy Ninja in a ball f water. Once Kakashi realized his mistake, he shouted out to his team to run away and take their client back to the village with them, which made Zabuza laugh. However, Naruto made a comment about how Kakashi was stupid and that Zabuza would just catch up to them in no time and then kill them all, including their client. Then the blond turned back to his team to come up with a plan, which also made Zabuza chuckle at their efforts so he created five water clones to attack them to put them out of their mission. However, once the water clones reached the genin and civilian, Naruto had already created twelve shadow clones that went head to head with the water clones. All the clones were dispelling each other left and right when the water clones dispelled, they would rain down upon the group as the shadow clones poof covered the team from view. But don't think that the team was left untouched because one of the water clones managed to break through Naruto's clone defense and send a kick to the blond's abdomen, making the 'original' Naruto fly back. Yet, just when the water clone was about to slash the remaining teammates like bread, Shikamaru and Sasuke joined forced at the last minute and stabbed the water clone.

 

The clone disburses into water, soaking them even more. Meanwhile, while they were doing that, the 'Naruto' that went flying pulled something from his backpack and threw it to Sasuke, sho caught it and proceeded to be extra as he spun around with the object. When he stopped, it was revealed that the object was, in fact, a Windmill Shuriken, that he aimed right at the original Zabuza who was unable to join the fight with his own clones because he had to keep his hand on the water prison. A super weakness of the jutsu, if you ask me. Why? Because even after Sasuke threw the overly large shuriken a the missing ninja, and said ex-mist ninja dodged it, he was unable to dodge the second shuriken that was thrown in the shadow of the first. This caused the Zaubza to detach his hand from the prison jutsu so that his limbs would be detached from him, which resulted in Kakashi being freed from the jutsu and able to rejoin the fight once again. Taking the chance he was given from his genin teamwork, which he couldn't really take any credit for, Kakashi then used his Sharingan to copy and replicate all of Zabuza's moves. Tricking him into lagging in the creation of his water dragon. The two jutsus collied with each other, Kakashi's being the one with more confidence had nocked Zabuza's own out and attacked the man himself. The force from the jutsu was enough to uproot one or two trees before slamming Zabuza into a well-grounded tree. But, just as Kakashi was about to deliver the final blow, a masked boy wearing a hunter ninja masked, showed up and knocked Zabuza's lights out via two senbon to the neck. Kakashi checked the so-called Demon of the Mist's vitals and found that he was, in fact, 'dead'. 

 

Coming up to Kakashi, the newly arrived hunter ninja, and the now 'dead' Zabuza, Naruto was able to get a good look at the hunter. He was young with jet black pulled up into a bun, his mask was that of a Kiri Hunter ninja, but his clothes. His clothes were what caught Naruto's attention the most. When the young hunter ninja was picking up Zabuza's body with ease, Naruto asked a question. 

 

"Aren't you going to dispose of it?" 

 

Which his replay was, "my kage has expressed the wish that he would like to deal with the body himself and I was only to make sure that he was brought back."

 

Naruto didn't buy the story, yet he couldn't ask anything else because Kakashi had covered his mouth and the ninja left. After the suspicious hunter ninja was gone, Naruto turned to Kakashi to chew him out for letting a suspicious hunter ninja get away like that...Only to see Kakashi fall to the ground, passed out and unable to move. Shikamaru checked to see if their sensei was still even alive, and was thankful that he was because it would have been troublesome otherwise. This left Sasuke and Naruto to carry Kakashi back to Tazuna's house, while Shikamaru carried Kakashi's bag. And the bunny, who he appropriately named 'Yuki' (they bonded in that short span of time of meeting until then). Tazuna led the rest of the way. Once reaching the bridge builders humble home, they were introduced to Tazuna's only daughter, Tsunami, and his grandson, Inari. Inar then made a comment about how they were going to die at Gato's hands, Tsunami scolded him, and Sasuke and Naruto were shown a room where they could dump their worthless sensei's body.

 

Once Kakashi was resting, Tsunami finished making lunch for them because they came a little after lunch. After lunch, Taunza gave them a rundown of the village, the bridge's status from before he left, and how long he anticipated the bridge to be finished. From the looks of it, it didn't look like the bridge would be finishing too soon from what they heard and Naruto wanted to know why, however, that could be left for later. Right now, Naruto was conversing with the Kyuubi about something that would greatly help their mission and the village...

* * *

 

 

_"So, Kyuu, what do you think?"_

 

**"Hmm, the seal itself is able, but you will need expertise with a seal at that level. You would first need to be in several different locations at once and cast the jutsu at the same time before making the seal at the spot you want. The place you chose will need to be heavily protected as you make the seal because even one wrong brush stroke and it will be disastrous."**

 

_"Mhmm, then, in that case, I can just make shadow clones then filter your chakra into them all so you can take over in the needed areas."_

 

**"No, that won't work."**

 

_"Why not?"_

 

 **"Because even though I have some of my chakra mixed in with yours, if I were to just take over your clones, regardless of how, they will all dispell. As you know, my chakra is very potent and I would need time to filter it all, or just some, into a vessel."** The fox sighed,  **"saying that we do this, and my chakra is sussceful in taking over your clone's body, the clone itself will still dispell. In the words of your mate, this is very troublesome."**

 

 _"Hm, then how about a seal that I can put on to the clones before you take them over?"_ The blond wondered.

 

**"What kind of seal were you thinking?"**

 

_"Well, the day before we left the village, I had finally managed to make my own seal. It's a containment seal that I made for a moment just like this. What it does, or supposed to do since I wasn't able to test it yet, was hold chakra as potent as yours. If I were to put it on the clones before letting you filter your chakra into each of them, their bodies will become solid."_

 

**"But shadow clones are already solid, kit, how can-"**

 

_"I know, I know, but that's not what I meant. Okay, for example, say instead of a body made up of chakra that could dispell easy after a fight, they become real."_

 

"..."The Kyuubi was definitely interested in what the blond was thinking. It flicked its tails as he considered the possibilities as he let his host explain more.

 

_"Instead of just being chakra with my appearance, they will become real bodies made up of flesh and bones. If you filter your chakra into them after that, in theory, your chakra will make up a chakra network that would make all the clones into a real, usable body for you. In a way, it will be like I sort of set you free without actually removing the seal, however, I must say that it's not completely finished yet, there is a time limit for how long you can use the bodies like that. They are still technically clones, after all, but the concept still applies...So, what are you're thoughts? I would like to hear them before we go through with this."_

 

The Kyuubi thought about it for a little while longer, making Naruto wonder if he was on board or not. Finally, it spoke,  **"even though it sounds foolproof, I think I would like to test this out anyways. If it doesn't work, we can think of something else or I can help you tweak the seal if nothing else."**  The fox then stood up in its cage and smirked, **"alright, let's give it a go then."**

 

Naruto smiled and got up from his spot on the pouch, he searched in his pockets for a few moments before taking out a few slips of paper on it. His actions alerted Shikamaru, who was sitting next to him on the porch, "what's up, Naruto?" The Nara asked as he looked up to his mate as the blond started walking off the porch.

 

Naruto smiled back at Shikamaru, "hey, hey, Shika-chan, I'm going to try a new seal out, you wanna watch?" He asked as he held up the slips of paper for the boy to see.

 

"You know how to do seals?" Shikamaru asked as he got up from his own spot, he held Yuki firmly in his arms so that he wouldn't accidentally fall from it as he walked over to his mate.

 

Naruto nodded his head, "yep, a good friend of mine has been teaching me everything he knows and I'm about to start putting that knowledge to the test right now."

 

"Hm, so you do more friends than just me, Hinata, and Chouji then, ne?" Shikamaru smiled, "that's good, I suppose, I was starting to worry."

 

Naruto waved his hand, "no need to worry about me, I'm Naruto Uzumaki, after all. Nothing can keep me down!" He smiled brightly at the other boy before walking into the center of the clearing in front of Tazuna's house just to be sure. He turned back to Shikamaru, "you better stay back, I don't want you to get hurt if this goes wrong, 'kay?" Shikamaru nodded his head and stepped a good ways back before nodding at Naruto, now that that was out of the way, the blond created about ten clones to line up in front of him. He then started putting seals on all of them, making sure to save the rest for a later time, next he told them all to hold hands and he placed his hand on the shoulder of the clone closet to him. Focusing his own chakra, he activated all ten seals, they glowed a bright blue for a second before slowly turning by as they melted into each clone. After that, Naruto started focusing on Kyuubi's chakra, trying to bring it out in small amounts as best as he could. He didn't have any experience in knowingly calling on Kyuubi's chakra, so the fox decided to help him out there by also pushing some of his chakras into each of the clones. The clone that Naruto was touching made a pained face, so did some of the other clones, some grunted in pain as more of Kyuubi's chakra was filtered into each of them. After a minute, one clone suddenly dispelled, letting the seal that was melted into it fall on the ground. Another minute went by and two more clones dispelled, followed by three more, and another, two more clones dispelled. Now there was only one left, Naruto continued to focus more chakra onto this clone, while also trying to filter some of his own chakras into the clone in hopes that it wouldn't dispell as fast. A few more seconds past by without the clone grunting in pain and Naruto opened his eyes to see if it worked. Naruto took a step back from the clone as he watched it slowly start to change. Its hair turned from bright golden yellow to a blinding carrot orange to a fiery tomato red, the length of his hair grew longer and more wild, but also less spiky. The whisker marks on the clone's cheeks darkened and a read shadow surrounded the outer edges of the eyes (Like Naruto when he's in sage mode). The fangs grew long and sharper, letting them poke out from his lips like a vampire. The skin darkened slightly, adding a light bronze color to Naruto's already tanned complexion. When the transformation seemed to be finished, the clone opened its eyes to show, instead of blue crystals, fire red marbles with hints of orange in them. 

 

"So did it work?" Naruto asked as Shikamaru stepped closer to the pare.

 

Curious about the newly transformed clone, Shikamaru reached a hand out to it, "Woah..." was all he could muster to describe what he saw. The clone stood still as he let Shikamaru's hand touch his cheek, as soon as he made contact with his skin, the clone's eyes widened. 

 

He grabbed Shikamaru's wrist and looked at him, surprising the other boy, he looked at the hand in his grip and placed it back onto his cheek. Closing his eyes to feel the hand, he smirked and turned red eyes to blue, "I think it works, kit."

 

Naruto smiled, "well, would you look at that, so it did. But, like I said, there's a time limit, so we should work fast before you dispell."

 

The newly altered clone, aka, Kyuubi, nodded his head and let go of Shikamaru's hand. "Huh? Wait, what worked?" The Nara asked curiously looking between Naruto and the clone, "what was that seal supposed to do?"

 

"Oh, right," Naruto took out one of the slips of paper with the seal on it and showed it to Shikamaru, "this is a containment seal. It works by creating a vessel that can contain chakra outside of the creator's body so that, in time of need, any chakra in that vessel will be transferred back. The vessel is designed to look and feel like a real human body, it will have skin, bones, and a chakra network running through them so that if any with say, the Byakugan, were to look at it, then they would only see a human been. Although I say that, if this body receives enough fatal blows, then it will dispell like a normal clone. Other than that, it's one hundred percent human," he explained with a hand on the Kyuubi's new body. 

 

To say that Shikamaru was impressed would be an understatement. "Wow, so then, it will kinda be like a soldier pill but not," he marveled, "that's really amazing." he looked the Kyuubi up and down and walked around it to get a full view, "so does he have a personality too? Or-"

 

"Kyuubi!" Came a high pitched voice.

 

Shikamaru and Naruto paused in their actions to look for where th voice came from, "did you hear something?" Naruto asked as he searched the trees.

 

"Yeah," Shikamaru said as he also looked around them, they were the only ones outside at the moment. It was also starting to get dark, "it almost sounded like a child's voice." 

 

Even though the two genins were looking towards the trees, Kyuubi was looking at the rabbit in Shikamaru's arms. He had a sneaking suspicion about it ever since they found it in that bush hours ago. The bunny looked up at the Kyuubi's new body and sniffed the air, once it was done, it opened it's mouth and shouted, "KYUUBI!" The bunny suddenly jumped out of Shikamaru's arms and hopped into Kyuubi's own open arms, once there, it snuggled into the red head's chest. Meanwhile, the Kyuubi just stared at the bunny.

 

Naruto and Shikamaru looked at Kyuubi and the bunny then looked at each other, and back again. "Uh...did that thing just speak?" Naruto asked.

 

"Nevermind that, did it just say Kyuubi?" Shikamaru wondered curiously, he looked at Naruto, then the red-haired clone and rabbit. He could put two and two together, but the four wasn't making much sense. So he asked, "so...and this might sound crazy, but, uh..." he looked at Naruto as he pointed to the clone, "is that the Kyuubi no Yoki? The demon fox that's supposed to be sealed inside of you?" He asked.

 

Naruto blinked his eyes for a moment before looking away, "maybe..."

 

"...Right..." he nodded his head and looked to the Kyuubi, "are you the fox or not?" 

 

Kyuubi looked up from the bunny that was trying to snuggle its way into his heart, figuratively and literally. "Hmm...we'll, I could lie to you, but that would be troublesome, and since you're already the mate of my host, I see no point."

 

"So that a yes."

 

"Yes."

 

"..."

 

"..."

 

Shikamaru turned back to Naruto with folded arms, "explain, or no sex tonight," he said with narrowed eyes at the blond.

 

"What! No way! That's not fair! You said we could tonight!" Naruto said looking at Shikamaru pleadingly, but the Nara didn't look like he was changing his mind any time soon, so the blond relented with a heavy sigh, "fine." He frowned, "there's a seal that I wanted to use on the village so that it could make our job much easier just in case Gato sent some stronger missing ninjas or some crazy bandits to us. I also wanted a way to know what was happening where and when in case Zabuza and his accomplice showed up again."

 

"Zabuza's accomplice?" Shikamaru asked with a raised brow, he thought back to the fight, "you mean you suspected that that guy wasn't a real hunter ninja from Kirigakura no Sato?" Naruto nodded his head, "then why didn't you say anything back then?"

 

"I would have if Kakashi hadn't covered my mouth back then," Naruto grumbled.

 

"Oh, right," Shikamaru sighed, another symptom of his pregnancy; forgetfulness.

 

"Oi, dobe, lover boy, it's time for dinner," came the sound of Sasuke's voice as he walked over to them. He had his hands in his pocket all the while looking like he couldn't give a shit, he reached his two teammates and took note of the clone with the rabbit. "What are you guys doing out here?" He asked then and nodded to the clone, "who's he?"

 

"This is the Kyuubi," Naruto introduced, Shikamaru and said Kyuubi looked at him as if he had lost his mind. He shrugged his shoulders, "what? I don't want him nagging us about it later, might as well tell him now."

 

Of course, Sasuke didn't believe that it was the actual Kyuubi standing before him and shrugged his shoulders. "Hn, so what were you two talking about just now?"

 

"About the hunter ninja that took Zabuza's body away earlier," Shikamaru explained with a tired sigh.

 

"That guy? What about him? He's just another ninja that wanted Zabuza out of the way, right?" Sasuke asked.

 

Naruto shook his head, "no. geez, I thought I was supposed to be the stupid one."

 

"What's that supposed to be, dobe?" 

 

"Guys! Stop the fighting, you're giving me a headache!" Shikamaru said as he was starting to lose his patience.

 

Sasuke went back to his usual not caring self, "hn, whatever."

 

"Anyways," Naruto spoke, "that guy back there wasn't a real hunter ninja."

 

"What makes you so sure about that, dobe?"

 

"Because of the fact that he didn't destroy the body on sight," Naruto state. Sasuke raised an eyebrow at him, so he continued, "I once read that Hunter ninjas are supposed to destroy their targets bodies on sight so that their village secrets are never released. However, that guy didn't, instead, he said that his kage wanted the body back in one peace so that he could deal with it himself."

 

"So?" Sasuke asked, thinking that it sounded legit.

 

Naruto rolled his eyes, "you're supposed to be rookie of the year, man..." he mumbled before taking a deep breath in and letting it out slowly. "Okay, let me run a theory by you, 'kay? Say that when we were talking about the mist earlier and heard that noise in the bushes before we meet Yuki here," points to the bunny, "that it wasn't the bunny we heard. Instead, it was Zabuza's accomplice we head instead, and he used Yuki as a cover to throw us off before Zabuza launched his big ass sword at us." 

 

Sasuke had a hand on his chin as he thought about this for a moment, "hn, I'm following you so far."

 

"Okay, now say that once Zabuza had Kakashi locked in a fight, his accomplice stayed on the sidelines and watched everything play out." Naruto went on, "suppose that, while he was watching not only Kakashi fight but how we also reacted as well."

 

Sasuke nodded, "but that mist was really thick, how could he see through it?" 

 

"Sasuke's right, if we couldn't see through Zabuza's mist, then how could he? Unless he was close enough to the fight to see what was going on, or he could see through it with some sort of dojutsu, I don't see how."Shikamaru stated as his hand pet Yuki's head. 

 

"Your right, hm..." Naruto thought for a few seconds, thinking over the fight from start to finish. Then an idea came to his head, "then, what if, while Zabuza was fighting, his accomplice was meant to take out the old man?" He wondered out loud, "what if he was actually standing close to us the whole time and was waiting for the perfect time to strike."

 

"But then he would have more than enough time to strike and get away since we were all trying to see what was happening in the mist." Shikamaru stated, "our focus was divided and thus, we were let open."

 

"Not quite," Naruto commented.

 

"What do you mean, dobe? Shikamaru's got a point, I will admit that the mist was putting us all at a disadvantage, so then since we were thinking that we were alone then-" Sasuke started but was interrupted by the blond.

 

"No, that's not it. Although, as you said, we were at a disadvantage, so that means that the fake hunter ninja was also at a disadvantage too."

 

"How so?" Shikamaru asked.

 

"Think back to what the fake hunter ninja looked like." Naruto stated, "he couldn't have been much older than us here...well, except for you," he said indicating to the Kyuubi. The redhead shrugged his shoulders and said nothing as he smoothes the fur on Yuki's back. Sasuke was a little curious about the redhead but would leave his questions on that for later. Naruto continued, "I don't know how they do it in Kiri, but if that kid's around the same age as us, then that means that he's probably at a high genin to low chunin level. If he's strong enough to be hanging around Zabuza all the time, living the life of a missing ninja, then I would put my money on him being strong. At least low to mid chunin at best."

 

"Hn, so what does that have to do with us right now? Didn't he kill Zabuza back then?" Sasuke asked.

 

"Yes, but he used senbon needles to do it," the Kyuubi spoke for the first time since Sasuke's arrival. 

 

"Senbon?" Sasuke and Shikamaru turned to the redhead version of Naruto.

 

"Yeah, I know a thing or two about them." The Kyuubi nodded, "the main thing I know is that they used to be used in the medical field, to treat patients. Sometimes it was used to know out people so that they could be operated on during the third ninja world war. Other times, it was used in assassinations, by covering the whole needle in poison, the user can strike a targets vitals and kill them instantly without touching them or being seen. It was very effective back in the day, but during recent times, people have thought of them as obsolete since everyone wants to use the newer, flashier things available." He explained, "either way, the way that kid used the senbon back then and the location he hit means that Zabuza's still alive."

 

"Huh? how do you know?" Shikamaru asked.

 

"Because there is a spot on the neck that you can hit with senbon needles that will cause an instant, but temporary death. I saw him hit it," Kyuubi stated with a bit of a yawn.  ** _"Man, I forgot how tiring having an actual human form was. Naruto, how do you survive?"_**

 

Naruto chuckled when he heard Kyuubi's thoughts, they were still connected by the seal so he could hear what he was thinking.  _"You get used to it after a while,"_ he thought back to the fox spirit.

 

"What's so funny?" Shikamaru asked.

 

"Nothing, anyways, as he said, Zabuza's alive, so that means we're going to have to train really heard before he makes a comeback." 

 

"Who is this guy anyway?" Sasuke pressed, he was getting a little more curious about the redhead by the minute. There was an aura around him that spelled danger.

 

"That doesn't matter right, Sasuke, let's get back inside, you said dinner was ready, right?" Shikamaru asked as he started walking back to the house with Naruto in tow. The Followed behind them with a sleepy rabbit in his arms. 

 

Sasuke, seeing that he wasn't going to get the answers he wanted, thought about demanding them, but then decided not too. He didn't see the point, over the time he had come to know Naruto and Shikamaru, they haven't really kept anything very secret from him. They even gave him tips about his taijutsu that, even though he said he didn't need, later found them to be quite useful. He might flex on how he didn't need a team but ever since getting to know those two, he found that he didn't mind having one after all. They turned out to be not as weak as he had suggested them to be, before. He knew that at some point, they would fill him in, he didn't know how he knew...maybe it was just a feeling. As he followed them into the house, Naruto introduced Tazuna's family to Kyuubi, saying that he will be joining them in their missing as the backup. Which wasn't all that far from the truth.

 

* * *

 

**Meanwhile, back in Konoha**

**Hokage's office**

 

Hiruzan was just backing up for the day when a knock came at his door. Looking up to see who it could be, he called out a "come in," and waited.

 

Praying to a higher power that it would not be any more of that evil paperwork.

 

Instead of a pile of headaches, Hiruzen looked up the form of Naruto Uzumaki. The new, and youngest, clan head of Konoha who would bring back the Uzumaki clan to its former glory. At first, the old man was confused by why the blond boy was there, yet, as he came closer, he noted that it wasn't the actual blond. Instead, it was a clone. "Naruto? What's the meaning of this, did something happen on your mission?" He asked worriedly, if Naruto died on his first C rank mission, it would not only riddle him with guilt, but it would also give the council what they wanted since hearing of the news. 

 

"Yes, Jiji-sama, the boss has sent me with this message to give to you." The clone stated as he placed the small scroll down on the kage's desk, Hiruzen picked it up slowly. Looking at it wearily, he began to open it, "we're in need of backup, as soon as humanly possible."

 

The Sandime read through the letter and had a deep frown on his face, he out down the scroll and sat back in his chair. "I see, it seems that Kakashi will need an extreme lesson in how to be a proper sensei to his team. But, in the meantime, why don't you tell me your thoughts on the team overall before I do anything too rash." 

 

The clone nod, "as a team, team seven has their flaws. Sasuke is a loner with the mindset that everyone was beneath him. Shikamaru is from a clan that has naturally small chakra coils, but he's smart enough and can make due. The boss, I would say, is the glue that kind of makes things work. As for the sensei, Kakashi, I wouldn't actually call him that."

 

"Why not?" Hiruzen asked, curious about the clones thoughts since it reflected Naruto's thoughts, and maybe even his teammates own as well.

 

"Well, sir, if I may be frank," Hiruzen nodded his head so the clone continued. "It's been a little over a month since Kakashi Hatake has taken over his leadership role for team seven. Yet, in all that time, the only thing he had taught them was where to pick up their missions. How to write an accurate report, barely. And the normal procedure in greeting and introducing oneself to a client. In my opinion, nothing of real value has been taught about the way of the ninja and other protocols that need to be followed on missions. Such as an example to, how to communicate between members when on a high stakes ops where speaking was not allowed. Team formation, as in, how a team should walk around the client to make sure that they are covered on all sides in case of enemy attacks the team to get to the client. What to do should the leader of the said team was taken out by the enemy and so on. I also regret to inform you that not even the simplest of chakra exercises was taught, such as the tree and exercise. Yet, despite all of this, Kakashi Hatake had decided to let his team take on a C rank mission, in my opinion, I think he might have been trying to prove a point. As to what that point might be was lost on the boss and me as well since I am only a clone."

 

Hiruzen leaned his head in his hand while his elbow rested on his desk. Looking at the clone, he was amazed at the intellect shown, because this was Naruto's clone, this only proved to him how smart the blond actually was. Yet, it also confused him as to why he didn't at least tell him about such intellect before. Did the boy not trust him? Either way, this wasn't the time to dwell on such things, going off of what he read in the letter, he needed to take in consideration that team seven has probably been attacked already. This time, if it was really Gato that they were dealing with, it would be some high-class ninja of the missing variety. Hiruzen didn't like the thought of that, coupled with the fact that Kakashi foolishly decided not to teach his genin anything before actually accepting it as their first mission was also troubling. "Hmm...alright, I will be sending teams to you as soon as I can get ahold of them. I am correct that team seven has at lest reached the border of Wave country unharmed?"

 

"Yes, Jiji, the boss, and the others were not too far away from the border when I was created. I'm guessing that they would have made it through and will be heading to the bridge builders house. That is if they were not attacked again on the way there," the clone stated.

 

Hiruzen nodded, "very well, I'll pull together two teams as fast as I can. When you dispell, I would like Naruto to try to send another clone to give me an update on what's happened when the teams get there. I should be about a day or so before they reach the village."

 

The clone nodded again, "don't worry, he will get the memories as soon as I dispell," he bowed respectfully.

 

"Wait, before you go," Hiruzen said before getting up and walking over to the clone. He got down on one knee and placed a hand on the clone's shoulder. "Naruto, before you get back, I wanted to inform you that the Lazy Ann, the Dimio's wife, has found out somethings about your parents."

 

"What? My...parents?" The clone asked confused, "I thought I was an orphan."

 

Hiruzen shook his head, "no, you're actually. But, since your clone needs to dispell soon, I must give you this warning before you come back. Also, after you left, I have come to believe that the council might be planning something, so be wary of them."

 

"D-do you know what they're planning?" the clone asked, still a little taken aback by the fact that he/his boss, wasn't actually an orphan. He wanted to know more, but the chakra that was used to create him was draining after the journey to the village. And of course, sneaking into the office without anyone else noticing wasn't a walk through the park either.

 

"I'm afraid not, my boy, but that is even more reason to stay on your toes around them. They are like snakes, they are still good people on the council, but most of them will do whatever they can to silence them." He warned, "one more thing before you go, you will need to take another wife soon or else the council with put forward a motion to disband the Uzumaki clan. I'll try to delay them until you get back, but you must hurry."

 

A look of determination came into the clone's eyes and he nodded, "I promise, Ji-" the clone didn't get a chance to finish his sentence before it went up in smoke.

 

Hiruzen sighed as he got off the ground, "I hope you live up to your predictable nature...now more than ever."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**To be continued....**

 


	15. Scheming

 

**Konoha**

**Council chambers**

 

"I can't believe that the Hokage has allowed that demon a clan of its own. And he's even put it in a CRA!" Complained a councilwoman on the civilian side, "doesn't he know what that means?!" 

 

"Apparently not, or else he wouldn't have done it," said another council member.

 

"If the demon is going to be taking over a clan, maybe that wouldn't be such a bad idea," Inoichi stated, sure he agreed with the council on not giving Naruto a clan of his own. However, he wanted to look at the bright side of things.

 

Looking at the other council member's faces, they didn't see where he was going with his train of thought. In fact, most of them were looking at him as if he had lost his mind. 

 

"Are you cray, Yamanaka-sama? what in the world would make you say something like that?" Asked council woman Haruno.

 

"Ah, but that's the thing." Inoichi stated, confusing them some more, so he explained, "I mean that even if the Hokage had decided to give the demon a clan of his own, instead of trying to denounce it, we should show our support."

 

"And why would we do that?" Tsume Inuzuka stated, "isn't it bad enough that Shikaku has lost his son to that thing, you want us all to lose our heirs to the demon?" She folded her arms with a huff, "I know I'm not going to give up my pups to that demon."

 

The some of the others nodded their heads in agreement with her, Inoichi sighed. "No, no, that's not what I'm trying to say, well, it kind of it, but...ugh, just let me explain, please." 

 

Chouza was getting curious about what his longtime best friend and old teammate was trying to say. "Inoichi, you seem like you have a plan, even though it doesn't sound like much, I would like to know why you think we should support the demon's efforts?" Shikaku was also a little-interested in what the blond was trying to say, he wanted to see what the council was going to come up with to decide if he should put in his two cents or not. For now, he's just had on his bord expression that he's always had during these types of meetings.

 

Inoicho smiled at his friend, "well, what I was really trying to say was that, instead of making it seem like we are against the idea, we should make it seem like we're for it. In other words, if the demon were to take one of your children, or anyone else's for that matter, as his partner for the CRA, and they were all male, then the clan wouldn't prosper. Therefore, the CRA would actually be pointless because the person that is the head of the contract will need to procure at least one child by the end of the year or during a years time."

 

"Ah, that does sound reasonable, however, who would ever agree to such a thing? Giving up one's child is ever easy, you know, Yamanaka-sama," Hamura, one of the elders spoke up.

 

"Yes, but," Inoichi continued, "if he does take one of our children, then that means we will have a way to control him."

 

This seems to catch everyone's attention, "how so," asked one of the merchants on the council.

 

"Oh, I get where you're going with this," Chouza stated, everyone looked at him for answers. "Basically, if one of us were to sacrifice one of our kids to the demon's clan, then we will be able to put a leash on him. He will have to abide by our rules in order to marry whoever he chooses, and after everything is final, we'll be able to advise him in clan matters."

 

Koharu, another one of the elders, nodded her head, she was getting an idea of where all of this was going now, and she liked it. "You know," she spoke up, "since he's still fairly young, he's going to need a representative to be on the council, if he marries into one of the bigger clans, then they can be the ones to do just that. In fact, I think that if that were we could have the demon right under our thumbs."

 

"And as long as he's taking only males, then we'll be able to rule over that wretched clan until they die out! It's perfect!" Stated one council member happily, the other members also seemed to be excited about the prospects of this plan.

 

Then Shikaku spoke, "but what if he finds a way to impregnate males as well?" 

 

Suddenly the room became quiet.

 

"Nara-sama, what madness do you speak?" Asked the Haruno, "to say that the demon can impregnate males will be like saying he could cure world hunger or something of the sort. It's absurd, a demon can't-"

 

"But what if he could?" Shikaku asked with a yawn, the other councilors were looking at him with varying emotions between fears, anger, and a bit of frustration.

 

Finally, Donzo, the leader of the secret organization ROOT, spoke up. "Nara-sama, are you saying that the demon has found a way to do what you're suggesting?" He asked curiously, Shikaku nodded, everyone gasped.

 

"If that's the case then we're going to have to make sure that the demon doesn't get his filthy hands on any more of the younger generation!" Shouted some other councilwoman from the civilian side.

 

The room was in a panic, everyone was already thinking up ways to prevent Naruto's from having more children. The suggestion of increased mob activity was brought up and passed around the room multiple times. However, Donzo didn't seem to be too worried, actually, while everyone was losing their shit, he was thinking about the possibilities. He stood up and banged his cane on the wooden floorboard to get everyone's attention. Once the room was silent once more and the attention was directly on him, he told everyone what he was thinking, "ladies and gentlemen of the council, if what Nara-sama says is true, then we should actually embrace this as an opportunity to make Konoha stronger."

 

"Stronger? How could letting the demon spread his seed and violate our children possible make the village stronger?" Asked a council member.

 

"Simple, we all know that the Kyuubi resides in the body and is a very powerful entity, yes?" The council nodded and Donzo went on, "then, with that in mind, I say that we should take the cursed gift that was given to us by the Yondime and make it work for us."

 

"How?" Asked another merchant.

 

"By making the demon breed," Donzo answered. Again, the room was filled with shouts of no's and calls of insanity on the 'crippled' old man, when he silenced them once more. "Everyone, please calm down, I know that none of you are willing to give up your children for this, but you must understand. With the Kyuubi's power, we could have a great weapon, however, with the Kyuubi's  _offspring_  we could have many weapons."

 

The council room stayed silent as everyone thought about this, "but then..." Inoichi started. "Then are you saying that we should be giving up our daughters to the demon as well?"

 

Everyone turned to Donzo to see what his answer would be, "yes, but for a good cause. You see, if we go with your plan of allowing the demon to just marry males, it would have been fine. Yet, with what Nara-sama has stated, where the Kyuubi brat could still possibly impregnate males, then that point is now mute. So, instead, why don't we allow him to marry females as well as males, and have him give birth to a whole army worth of spawn that we could use." The room stayed silent as everyone absorbed the information, "you see if the demon only marries males and somehow is able to give them the ability to give birth, there's no telling of the complications involved. But, if he marries females, there still might be some risk, yet, it might be lowered because the female is more adept to childbirth. With this new generation, born from the Kyuubi, the demon will have no choice but to willingly bend to our will to ensure the safety of his children."

 

Tsume grunted, "if that's the case, then how would you suggest that we get to actually marry one of our daughters?"

 

"Yes, and how would we choose which girl he should marry?" Asked the Haruno, "I myself have a daughter, so does councilman Jishiru, Inuzuka-sama, Yamanaka-sama. Hyuuga-sama has two daughters, you can't be saying that we should all give up our daughters, are you?" She asked, her voice had a bit of a threatening tone.

 

Donzo shook his head, "no, no, that is not what I was suggesting at all."

 

"Then what?" Koharu asked.

 

The secret ROOT leader stopped to think, suddenly Chouza spoke up with a good point. "Does that boy even like girls?" He asked, everyone looked at him as if he just spoke another language, the Akamichi shrugged his shoulders, "what? Ever since he was in the academy, he didn't really seem to like anyone, at least, that we know of. And now he's married to Shikaku's son and is supposedly expecting a child?"

 

"What are you trying to say, Akamichi-sama?" asked the Haruno, a little miffed, but also curious about his point, "are you saying that the demon is completely gay? Impossible! Every ninja knows the importance of having grown up, getting married, and having children of their own. That was the whole reason we lowered the legal age for ninjas to get married from between seventeen to whenever they make genin, which is usually around twelve to thirteen years of age."

 

Shikaku yawned again, Hishi looked over at the Nara carefully, he found him to be oddly more laid back today. "Shikaku-san, what are you're thoughts on this subject?" He asked, speaking for the first time since the meeting started.

 

"Troublesome, look, it's not like I know the kid all that well. I mean, he did just marry my son, behind my back, about a month ago." The Nara stated lazily, "I was able to view his team's genin test and found it to be insightful, but all so curious at the same time. From what I saw, he seems to have been hiding his intelligence from us for who knows how long. But, since everyone just assumed he was dumb shit, it was easy enough for him to do. Recently, though..." he thought back to the speed that Naruto used to get away from him when he was chasing the long. His speed was remarkable, resembling the yellow flash if only just a bit. Of course, after seeing that, it was clear to guess who the boy's father was, yet, he couldn't tell this to the council. He knows that the village did see that yellow flashback then and he knows that if he told them who was behind it, they would either say he somehow 'stole' it or it was a trick. Neither really mattered because the past could not be changed even if they wanted to change it. So he sighed, "recently, I've been thinking that Naruto Uzumaki reminds me of a jack-in-the-box. You know he's there, you when he's going to show up, but when he does, he brings a bit of a surprise with him. Each time different than the last."

 

Hamura nodded, agreeing with the Nara, "yes, I also admit that the boy is unpredictable sometimes. Although that might be, I think that we should still move forward with this plan. It's for the good of the village that might just help us out in a pinch in the long run. If nothing else, then we could always come up with another method."

 

"But what if Chouza-san was right?" Came the voice of Shibi Abarame, the head of the Abarame clan, and ghost among the more noticeable clan heads. 

 

To prove this point, when Shibi spoke, nearly everyone in the room jumped at his voice. Clearing forgetting that he was even still in the room.

 

"What do you mean?" Tsume asked, who happened to be sitting right next to him, and still forgot that he was there.

 

Fighting down the depression of being forgotten, again, Shibi continued. "Chouza-san mentioned that the Uzumaki boy might not be interested in girls. If your plan was to be hindered by that, how would you remedy it?"

 

Shikaku nodded, "he does have a point. If Naruto turned out to not actually like girls, then that may or may not set your plan back some."

 

"Hmm, then we'll have to test the waters before we can move forward with our plans," Hiashi stated stoically.

 

Donzo nodded, "yes, and I have the perfect Idea of how we should do just that..."

 

* * *

 

**London**

**St. Angelina Boarding school for boys**

 

It has been a day since the blond man, Minato Namikaze, and his family has touched down in London. After leaving the airport, they made their way over to their hotel to relax for a bit before finding the famous boarding school of St. Angelina. Once their, they found the headmaster and was now waiting for someone in his office. 

 

Now, you may be wondering why the Namikaze's were in a boarding school in London and not in Konoha. Well, it's because...

 

"Mom! Dad!" The door to the office showed a boy that looked to be about twelve years old in age. He had perfectly tanned skin, he was reasonably tall for his age and he had the brightest smile on his face. As he entered the room more, you could see wildly spiked, blond hair like his father, a heart-shaped face, like his mother, but the thing that stood out the most when you looked at him, was the whisker marks. 

 

That's right, whisker marks, three of them, on each cheek. (Remind you of anyone?)

 

"Son!" 

 

"Big brother!"

 

"How's my boy doing? It's been so long and you're already grown so much!" The woman, Kushina, stated as she ran over to her oldest and hugged the crap out of him.

 

"I'm fine mom, but can you let me go, please? It's getting hard to breath," the blond boy said as he struggled under both his mother's and little brother's hugging strength.

 

"Oh, sorry, love," Kushina said letting go of the young blond and tucked a stray red hair behind her ear, however, Shoji, the little red-haired boy, did not. "So, we've come for you, do you know what that means?"

 

The boy's eyes brighten and shinned like the stars, "does this mean that we're going to finally go to Konoha for him?" He asked excitedly, it was clear that he had been waiting for this moment for quite some time.

 

Minato came over to his son with his daughter in hand, he nodded, "yep, that's right. Do you have all you're things packed, Menma?"

 

The boy, now known as Menma, not Naruto, nodded. His  _green_  eyes sparkling with joy, "yes, I packed last night when you told me that you were getting on the first flight to London! So, when are we leaving? This evening? Tonight? When, when, when?!" He asked as he jumped up and down hyper, his little brother following his lead, also excited to see his other big brother for the first time.

 

Kushina laughed, "don't worry, we will be leaving first thing tomorrow morning."

 

The little blond boy pouted, "muooo, why so late? I wanna leave now!" 

 

Minato chuckled at his son's hyperness, he leaned down and placed a hand on his shoulder, "we've already booked the flight from London to Japan to tomorrow morning. It's too late to change it I'm afraid, but!" He said when he saw the frowns on his sons face deepen, "that doesn't mean that we can't spend time together as a family for the rest of the day! I spoke to your headmaster and he tells me that you passed all your test. You know what that means?"

 

"My test?" Menma looked up at his dad questioningly before he remembered what he was talking about. "Oh, right, my test, that means that I can jump to the next guard before graduation!" The blond gasped as he remembered something else, "does that mean that I get to graduate in Konoha now too? And become a ninja with him?"

 

Minato nodded, "yes, you do, once we get back to the village, it should be time for your year to be graduating too. We should arrive a day before so we can hang out with your brother and make up for lost times. Isn't that great?"

 

"Yay! We get to see big brother!!" Shoji said happily as he jumped around the room.

 

"This is awesome! I can't wait until I meat him, you said he looks just like me but with blue eyes, right dad?" Menma asked, his parents nodded, he pumped a fist in the air, "alright! When we get to the village, we're going to have so much fun! Oh! I need to get my bags, I'll be right back!" He yelled as he ran out of the office to get all of his stuff.

 

"I wanna come too, me too, big brother!" Shoji yelled as he ran after his big brother before either of his parents could stop him.

 

Once both boys were gone, Minato sweatdropped, "they sure are our sons, did you see and energy they had?" 

 

"Uh huh, I would know, I carried them for nine months, dear," Kushina said with a matching sweatdrop. She sighed and turned to Minato, "Mina, are you sure we did the right thing? Leaving Naruto back in the village like that, I mean."

 

"Hm?" Minato turned to his wife and saw the nervous look on her face, instantly he knew what she was thinking, "don't worry Kushi-chan, he'll forgive us. Once we explain everything, he'll understand, so don't worry. Besides, after we get Naruto back, we can show him everything that we experienced after leaving the Elemental Nations. I just know he's going to love New York! And Miami's got his name written all over it, we'll be having so much fun together that he'll forget all about the time we've been apart!" He said with a dazzling smile.

 

"You mean that, honey?" Kushina asked with a sniffle.

 

"I do," Minato nodded.

 

"Then," Kushina wiped her eyes and returned his smile, "there's nothing to worry about at all, ya know!"

 

* * *

 

**Meanwhile**

**Back in the Elemental Nations**

**Wave country**

 

Naruto paused his thrusting for a moment as he closed his eyes to sort through the new memories he had gained from his clone. When he got everything sorted out, he continued to press Shikamaru firmly against the side of Tazuna's house, making sure he didn't fall. He then readjusted Shikamaru's body in a seated postion as he started to thrust his hips into him once more with renewed viguer. Shikamaru moaned out as he started to get close to the edge, he wrapped his arms aroud Naruto's neck, hugging him close as the blond continued to deepen his thrusting. Shikamaru could feel the tip of Naruto's dig brush against his sweet spot and he moaned into the blond's shoulder, trying his best not to wake the people inside the house with their passion. Naruto could feel Shikamaru's walls tighten around his dick, indicating that he was about to blow, the blond smirked as started sucking on Nara's neck, making sure to leave behind remarks to show the world who he truly belonged to. The sensation of Naruto's thrusting and his mouth on his neck was driving Shikamaru wild, after two more thrust, Shikamaru couldn't hold himself back any longer and came. Feeling Shikamaru's walls tighten further made the blond hit his own orgasm, letting his seed explode inside of the other boy, filling him to the brim. Once the two were finally finished with their act, Naruto slowly laid his mate on the grassy floor of the eath to rest. No doubt the other male will be unable to walk after two hours of sex. After making sure that Shikamaru was comfortably laying on the ground, Naruto pulled up both of their pants and fixed their clothes so that they could look presentable if they did find someone away when they finally went back inside. Finishing that task, Naruto laid back in the grass next to Shikamaru with a heavy sigh, a smile on his face as he looked up at the stares. As they laid their, trying to catch their breaths and cool down from their heated venture, Shikamaru turned his head lazily to the side so that he could look upon his mate. He took note of the blond's features, from the smile on his face to the way his chest moved up and down as he took in and dispelled air. He noted the small, hardly noticeable dimples on Naruto's cheek, right between the first and second whisker mark on his right cheek, while on his left cheek, it was between the second and third mark. 

 

"I...I think I love you..." Shikamaru whispered as he continued staring at the blond. He was thinking that the blond would hear him over the sound of him trying to catch his own breath...

 

Of course, having heightened senses, thanks to the Kyuubi, Naruto heard it loud and clear. It was soft like a light breeze blowing through the branches of the trees on a summer night. It was music to his ears. He turned his blue eyes onto deep brown ones, staring deep within them. He took in everything about Shikamaru, looking at him as if it were the first time. From his smooth, pale skin to his silky, long hair that was still out of his usual ponytail, and the light blush on his cheeks from their recent activities. "You're beautiful..." he whispered back, making Shikamaru blink, a little surprised.

 

Shikamaru turned away from the blond to hide his deepening blush, but it was already too late for that. "No, I'm not, I'm a mess," Shikamaru said, trying to look at anything but his mate.

 

Naruto chuckled lightly, "then I must like messy things."

 

"What are you even saying?" Shikamaru asked, still not looking at the blond.

 

Naruto reached out a hand to the Nara, taking it into his hands gently, a soft smile on his lips, "Shikamaru..." He waited for the other boy to turn back to face him again, "I think I love you too..." 

 

Those simple words were enough to make Shikamaru feel like his heart had skipped a beat, twice. The two laid there under the stars for a long time, looking into each other's eyes. It seemed like forever before either of them moved, Shikamaru was trying to think about something to say. However, before he could even get one sound, he felt a drop of water fall on his cheeks. Looking back up to the sky, he noticed that there were clouds that were starting to roll in, followed by more droplets of rain that soon started to pick up. "I think we better get inside," Shikamaru said as he tried to stand up, but his legs were still weak from before.

 

Naruto sat up and quickly got to his feet just as the rain really started to come down. He turned around and got down low enough for Shikamaru to easily access his back, "hope on and I'll take you inside," Naruto said as he waited for Shikamaru to get onto his back. Once the Nara was secured, Naruto got up and made his way around to the front of the house and then inside of it before he set Shikamaru down on the edge of the living room. He reached into one of his many pockets on the inside of his jacket to retrieve something, taking out a scroll, he unsealed a towel and gave it to Shikamaru to dry off with. He then took out a towel for himself and did the same thing, he chuckled as he dried his hair, "that was pretty fun, wasn't it, Shika-chan?"

 

Shikamaru blushed a little, "yeah, it was," he said with a small chuckle as he finished drying his own hair.

 

"Did you two have fun out there?" Came a smooth voice off to the side.

 

"Sasuke? You're still up?" Shikamaru asked, surprised that the Uchiha was still awake at this hour, even though it wasn't too late, it wasn't early either.

 

"Of course I would be up, what were you two doing outside for so long?" Sasuke asked, "when you said you guys were going outside to talk after dinner, I didn't expect you to come back three hours later, what's the deal?"

 

"Actually, I would say that it was more like two," Shikamaru corrected.

 

"Would you really like to know?" Naruto asked seductively as he winked at Sasuke.

 

The room was dark so no one could really see the small tint of pink that colored Sasuke's cheeks. Everyone but Naruto, "you know what, never mind, that Kyuubi guy said we should all get some sleep. He supposedly going to be training us in the morning, so stop fooling around and get to sleep, dobe." 

 

Naruto watched as Sasuke got under his covers and presumably fell asleep. Naruto smirked at him, Shikamaru noticed the look and frowned, "what's with that face? You look like you're up to no good, Uzumaki."

 

Naruto faked being hurt, "wha-who, me? Up to no good? Why, Shika-chan, you wound me! I would never!" He said dramatically before chuckling slightly when Shikamaru punched him lightly in the arm. "Relax, Shika, I promise I won't do anything bad to him," the blond said as he took off both of their shoes and started to make up their bed to sleep in. "Tonight, at least."

 

Shikamaru rolled his eyes, "how did I ever fall for you?" He mumbled to himself as he started to help his mate.

 

Naruto smirked, "because you secretly like bad boys, baby," he winked at Shikamaru.

 

Said Nara shook his head, "well, you're the only boy I've ever been with, so I guess that might be true." 

 

"The only boy, huh?" Naruto asked a little curiously as they started to get into the newly made up bed, "does that mean you've been with girls before."

 

Shikamaru turned away from the blond as he laid down, "I'm not having this conversation with you tonight, Naruto."

 

"Aw, come on, Shika-babe, why not?" Naruto asked as he pulled the covers over them and laid behind him, "come on, tell me, you know you want to," he sang.

 

"I'm tired, Naruto, good night," Shikamaru stated before pulling his part of the covers over his head. Naruto pouted a little but dropped the subject, he would get his answer soon enough anyway. So, instead of sleeping, he laid on his back and looked up at the ceiling. Naruto never really spends a full night asleep anyways.

 

The nightmares won't let him.


	16. Wave and babies

**The next day**

 

It was early in the morning when Shikamaru woke up. After regaining full consciousness, he noticed a difference within himself. He wasn't sure what it was at first, but he knew that something about him had changed since the night before. Getting up slowly, he let the covers fall from his shoulders down to his lap, when they did, he looked down at himself for a few moments. He let his eyes register his surroundings as well as the state he was in. They were still in Tazuna's living/family room area, Kakashi was still out cold, and it appeared that Sasuke had already gotten up and left. Looking out the window, if he were to guess the time, it would have to be a little after sunrise at the moment, so where could he have gone so early? There were only two options, the forest or the village, they did have to stay until the bridge was finished after, abandoning the mission halfway through was a no-go for all ninjas. Unless they had THE BEST explanation as to why leaving a mission without finishing it was grounds for either dismissal or suspension. Or in some rare, or maybe not so rare, cases, public execution. Either way, Sasuke would be so dumb, so Shikamaru knew that he would turn back up sooner or later. 

 

But that wasn't important right now.

 

Why? Because right now, at this very moment, Shikamaru was looking down at his stomach. It looked different, obviously so, to the point that it was strange. Yet, it made his heart flutter at the same time. Placing a hand over his midsection, Shikamaru felt the fairly large bump that was peeking through his the bottom of his shirt. Ever since he was small, Shikamaru had always been skinny, he could were clothes that he had gotten when he was five up until he was around maybe eight or nine. Maybe that was why he noticed the difference right away, his clothes felt tighter around his midsection, even though he had recently bought these clothes in a bigger size than he usually does. It was amazing to see his belly looking so...larg? Well, large to him, anyway. It was slightly rounded a bit, and firm to the touch, smooth too, Shikamaru's lips curled up into a smile as he felt the bump. He looked over to where Naruto had fallen asleep, he wanted to wake him up so that he could see the change, but he wasn't laying next to him like he was expecting him to be. Curious about where his blond mate had gone, he looked around, seeing that he was the only one still in bed, other than Kakashi. It didn't look like anyone else in the house had woken up just yet, so Shikamaru decided that he would just get up now and find his husband. He got out of bed and tried his bed to stand up steadily, he could feel his center of gravity starting to shift a bit with the added weight, but it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. Then again, he had only just started showing. He made up his and Naruto's bed, putting it away in the blond's pack before exiting the house in sure of his lover. Once outside, Shikamaru took a moment to breathe in the fresh air around them and was pleased, it smelled fresh and clean with a hint of condensation from the rain last night. He was happy that he put on his shoes because the grass was still wet from the rain last night, the way it felt under his feet was also to his liking. Shikamaru had always liked sleeping through the rain because when he woke up, the smell of the lingering rain and wet earth would ground him and bring him peace of mind. He closed his eyes and breath in deeply as he walked off the porch, using the railing as a guide so he didn't miss a step.

 

"HA!"

 

Shikamaru's eyes snapped open when the sudden outburst was heard in the distance. He looked up just in time to see a flock of birds leaving the tops of the trees. "Hm, I wonder who that could be," he said to himself with a small smirk on his lips as he made his way into the forest. 

 

* * *

 

**In the village**

 

Sasuke walked around the village early that morning, he wanted to get a feel for it since he didn't really have that much time to do so the day before. Walking the streets, he saw pretty much the same things he did yesterday, however, with more light out, he was able to see those things in detail. All the buildings were in a rundown and brown broken state. The windows were boarded up and some of the doors were either missing or replaced with a plank of wood that didn't fit quite right. On the houses he did pass by, he saw that they were not in better shape than the shops because he could clearly see the replacement wood they had to use to either cover a hole in the door or the roof. The streets were still pretty empty for the early morning, although he did see a handful of kids as he passed. their clothes were so dirty and worn that he could just barely make out the color that they used to be, a white shirt so dirty that it turned brown, red pants that almost looked black from afar. Some were even just wrapped up in ragged sheets. On one had Sasuke could count the number of girls he saw, all varying in ages from five to maybe ten-years-old. Many of the people he did see looked homeless, some were crowding around a trashcan fire for warmth, while some others looked to be in a daze of sorts. All in all, he could see why Tazuna had to lie about the ranking of the mission, this village clearly didn't have the money to pay for anything higher than a C, and even then it looked like they were only just scraping by to save. He saw clothing shops that looked like they had cobwebs on the display, it doesn't look like anyone had been able to buy any new clothes since this Gato guy took over.

 

Walking around, Sasuke noticed that there were only two places that still seemed to be getting some business. The first place was the grocery store, of course, but it looked like it was just scraping by too. Like the other shops in the town, he had a feeling that within a year or so, that place would be forced to close down as well. The meager food store barely had enough supplies to support two families, let alone a while village.

 

The next one, which seemed to be rather newish, and was doing way better than any other store in the whole village, by two miles at least, was a nightclub. The name "Fallen Crescent" was displayed big, bold lights over the door. The building looked to be about the size of a standard nightclub, it wasn't as big as the one in Konoha, but it was still fairly big. There were windows on the second floor that showed flashing, color changing lights. He could hear the muffled sound of loud music booming just beyond the door. He could barely make out the faint squeals and such that arose from the other side of the door, there was also a faint smell around the building that he didn't like. It wasn't really a smell that could be simply named other than as an 'adult smell' if that made any sense. Looking around, he could see that anyone that was walking in a direction in front of the club would either walk very quickly, run, or avoid the place altogether. This could only mean one thing, Gato was in control of that club, and whatever was going on inside was also not good. Sasuke frowned at this discovery, he didn't like the look of that club looking so prominent when the rest of the village of the village looked like it was going to hell in a handbasket. Standing up on the roof that he was squatting on to observe the club's activities, he decided that he wanted to get a look inside. However, he knew he couldn't do that unless he had a backup, of course, if he had come across this place a few weeks ago, he would have tried to sneak in by himself. Yet, he knew that if he did, Naruto would probably be upset or something, Shikamaru would give him this disappointed look that somehow made him feel like a child that disappointed their parent and Kakashi...Well, he was still down for the count, but he was sure the man would have probably praised and scolded him for his actions as well, so he decided against it. Turning to leave, Sasuke made his way back to the bridge builders house so that he could inform the others of his findings. He got the feeling that Naruto would be all for breaking into the club and thrashing the owner, although, something told him that they wouldn't need to break in. Shikamaru was smart and would suggest a plan, Naruto was more likely to go along with his plan and then adjust if something were to happen.

 

And then there was Kyuubi. 

 

Sasuke didn't know what to make of the guy still. He looked like Naruto but wasn't. The air of danger around that guy made Sasuke feel like there was some dark and powerful demon king just waiting to break out of his cage and kill anything that moved. At first, the Uchiha thought that it was his imagination playing tricks on him, but who knows?

 

* * *

 

**With Naruto**

 

Naruto did not sleep well, as expected. He never sleeps well at night, never. Ever since he could remember, there have always been nightmares that plagued his mind. If he was able to tire himself out to the point that he would fall into a dreamless sleep, then he would welcome the darkness with open arms. Yet, he hasn't been able to do such a thing since he was ten and the villagers chased him down and beat him nearly to death. The Sandime had arrived just in time to stop the killing the blow before Naruto's lights went out forever, it was on that day that he had a full nights rest without any interruptions. But when morning came, he had yet to wake up, the reason behind that was because his body had taken on so much damage that the Kyuubi took a full day and a half before it could repair the blond's nervous system. Motor functions. Spin. Ribs. And frontal cortex. 

 

Kyuubi had yet to tell his host that, because of that night, his nightmares had gotten much worse. Because of that night, Kyuubi had decided that he would keep a closer eye on his host's subconscious, and the seal. Seeing as how the villagers have managed to get their hands on someone who knew a thing or two about seal disruption.

 

As of right now though, Naruto was fine. A normal boy as far as jinturiki's goes. But still, the threat was there, lurking in the shadows.

 

"Phew, that took a while," Naruto looked up at where Kyuubi's clone body was laying in a tree. "Yo, old man, I finished making all the seals, what now?"

 

The Redhead looked down at the blond with his ruby colored eyes. He hopped down from his tree, walked over to his bold counterpart, and took a look at one of the large parchments he had been working on all night. Taking in the precise lines, the curve of the brushes, he nodded. "Very good, the Seer Matex has been completed, now all we need to do is finish the Working Guard seal and then find places to put them in the village before adding the Command Center seal. It shouldn't take too long to finish though, what will all your clones helping out, plus my expertise, we'll be done before lunch."

 

"Really? Oh, but we still need to help Tazuna with the bridge today, so I can't really give you too many clones." Naruto said with a thoughtful look on his face, "the Command Center seal is the one that needs the most chakra right?"

 

Kyuubi shook his head, "no, the  Working Guard is the one that needs the most chakra, however, comparing the two, they are about the same energy-wise."

 

"Cool," Naruto said as he made two more clones to join the three he made last night in drawing seals. "So, once the seals are finished, when can we start putting them up?"

 

"I would suggest when it starts to get dark out. That way, we can avoid too many observers as we work," Kyuubi stated. Naruto nodded and turned back to the seal he just created, while he was doing that, Kyuubi looked out into the bushes for a moment. He then smiled when he sensed a familiar chakra signature, "looks like you have company."

 

"Huh? Who?" Naruto looked over to the Kyuubi only to see him walking over to the other clones, he shrugged his shoulders and turned to greet the person. He smiled brightly at them before that smiled dropped into a look of awe.

 

Shikamaru smiled as he made his way over to Naruto, "hey there Naruto, guess what," he said as he placed a hand on his rounded belly.

 

Naruto continued to look in awe at Shikamaru's belly. He looked like he was a little over four months, "Shika-chan..." Shikamaru blushed a little as he watched Naruto slowly walk over to him. By the look on his face, it looked like Naruto thought he was dreaming or something when he was standing in front of Shikamaru, he continued to stare at his belly. "Is...is t-this real? Are you-you're actually..."

 

Shikamaru chuckled a bit, "yes, I'm showing now. Wow, I can't believe it," he stated as he looked down at his belly, "this is happening really fast, don't you think? I just woke up and I went up in size," he laughed. Naruto lifted his hand hesitantly to Shikamaru's belly, he seemed afraid of something, the Shikamaru didn't understand why. He didn't like this look on his husband's face, Shikamaru decided that he would help the blond out a bit, he took his hand and placed it on his belly. He giggled when the blond jumped a bit at the feeling but kept his hand there, marveling at his belly, "hey, it's okay, you're not going to hurt me by touching my stomach."

 

"I-I know, I just..." Naruto said, training off midsentence. After a few more moments the blond smiled a small smile,  _"there's no going back now, is there? I guess not, but I suppose it's to be expected, we did do it after all..."_  He looked up at Shikamaru, his smile growing bigger, "I'm gonna be a dad," he beamed at his mate, "I'm going to be a dad!" 

 

Shikamaru blushed at his husband's dorkiness, "yeah, I-whoa!" 

 

Naruto pulled Shikamaru into a hug before he could finish what he was going to say, "I'm going to be a dad!" He laughed as he hugged Shikamaru close, Shikamaru giggled and hugged him back. They stayed like that for a little while longer, his clones and Kyuubi looking at the couple with pride on their faces. "Thank you..." he whispered in softly.

 

Shikamaru shook his head, the smile unable to leave his face, "thank you for what?"

 

Naruto held Shikamaru out at arm's length, his eyes shined jewels as he spoke, "just...thank you," then he pulled him back into a hug.

 

Shikamaru was a little confused by this but he didn't want to ruin the moment, "you're welcome..."

 

As the two hugged in the middle of the clearing, Sasuke walked over and stopped. He saw them hugging, he didn't know why, but he felt a small pang of hurt and jealousy run through him, but he smashed those feelings down. He was an Uchiha after all. The lone avenger, he had no time for such feelings. "Hn, dobe, Shikamaru, cut all that lovey-dovey crap out, we're on a mission." He stated, effectively dampening the mood, "besides, there's something in town that I want to show you."

 

Naruto sighed, he was still in a good mood thanks to Shikamaru, so Sasuke interruption didn't change much. "Alright, Uke-chan, what's up?" The blond retorted, smirking at the blush that showed up on Sasuke's angered face.

 

"Tsk, whatever," Sasuke said as he shoved his hands into his pocket and looked around the clearing. "I found this nightclub in town that looks super sketchy, I couldn't really ask anyone about it because they all seemed to scared. I think they might have thought that I was one of Gato's men or something, anyway, I got a bad vibe from it. I thought you might want to check it out too."

 

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the Uchiha, "who me? The deadlast, check out some sketchy place with you?" He chuckled, "If you wanted to get into my pants, Uke-chan, you should have just asked."

 

Sasuke grumbled, turning a glare onto the blond, "I'm not trying to get into your pants, dumbass, I'm serious. There's this real-"

 

"Okay, okay, we'll check it out after we help Tazuna at the bridge," Naruto said trying to calm the boy down so that they didn't start fighting. Shikamaru leaned into his side and yawned, looks like he was getting tired again now that he had shared his news. Naruto placed an arm around his shoulders and pulled in close, "we should probably get back to the house before Tazuna's family starts waking up to see us not there."

 

"Hn, whatever," Sasuke said, more than ready to leave the clearing.

 

"Hold up a moment there you three," Kyuubi called out, they turned to him. The redhead walked over to stand next to Naruto and Shikamaru, "I hope you didn't forget that I'm starting your training today since the copy ninja didn't care to before." The Kyuubi then handed Naruto and Shikamaru seals he had made while Naruto was making the other seals they were planning to put around the village. He handed Naruto two, Shikamaru got three that was different from Naruto's two, and Sasuke got the same two that Naruto got.

 

"What are these?" The Uchiha asked, looking at the seals as if they were going to give him the answers. He had no idea what they actually were, thinking that they were only paper with squiggles drawn on them.

 

"These are seals." Kyuubi explained, "Naruto and Sasuke, you two both have the gravity and suppressant seals. The gravity will make it hard for you to do your everyday activities as you usually do by making your body feel much heavier. This will help with weight training and help you both to get ready for the weight seals I've prepared for you. As for the suppressant seal, it will suppress your chakra to below genin level and help you build it up. When you feel like you've reached back up to genin level, or a little above that, you can either remove the seal yourself or have it upgraded and start over. When you take of both seals, you will see the difference it will make. While you have the seals on, I have drawn up a workout plan for the both of you to do"

 

Sasuke almost looked impressed, which meant he was very impressed. "So, what about Shikamaru? Doesn't he get the same thing?"

 

"Actually, no," the Kyuubi stated as he walked over to Shikamaru's side and pulled up his shirt for all to see. 

 

"Ack! Kyuubi! What the hell man, don't you have boundaries!" Shikamaru protested as he tried to pull his shirt back down, embarrassed that the fox did that.

 

"Seriously man?" Naruto asked with a raised brow to the fox wondering if he should smack him or not. Even if he did, this was the Kyuubi after all, a smack wouldn't be of any harm to him, it would probably feel like a tiny pebble hit him or something. Then again, the Kyuubi was in a shadow clone body, so if he did smack him, then the body might just disappear in the process. He couldn't afford that right now because they were so close to finishing with the Fortress Arrangement Seal they've been working nearly all night. He would have to think of some other way to get the fox back for this.

 

Meanwhile, Kyuubi just chuckled, "relaxed, I didn't mean anything by it. Now, he turned back to the Uchiha, "do you see this?" He pointed to Shikamaru's belly.

 

Sasuke looked upon the smooth skin, trying to hide his awe at how soft it looked for a boy, He was also trying to hide a bit of lust that took him by surprise. "So, what? Shikamaru's a little fat, what's that-"

 

"I'M NOT FAT!" Shikamaru said, actually feeling offended that the Uchiha would suggest that he did. Sasuke put up his hands in surrender, not expecting the Nara to raise his voice like he did because...well, he was a Nara.

 

"No, Shikamaru's not actually fat, she's pregnant," Kyuubi explained.

 

"I'm not a girl either!" Shikamaru yelled as he finally pulled his shirt down and glared at the fox/clone

 

Sasuke raised a brow at the fox, "pregnant?" The redhead nodded, "okay, yeah, I can see that...along with the twelve pigs flying over our heads right now. Like hell I would believe that!"

 

"Huh? Flying pigs? Where?!" Kyuubi looked up to the sky to try and spot the pigs that Sasuke spoke up, he was greatly disappointed when he saw none. He turned a frown onto the Uchiha, "you know, it's not nice to lie to a hungry Bijuu so early in the morning."

 

"A hungry what?"

 

"Never mind that, Sasu-chan," Naruto stated, "the fact of the matter is that it's true."

 

Sasuke rolled his eyes, "didn't I tell you to stop calling me that?" He scowled, "besides, how can I even believe? Do you have proof that he's pregnant?" 

 

"Yes."

 

"And what is it? Show me."

 

"Well to do that, I would need to have the knowledge for a chakra scan and Kyuubi hasn't taught me that just yet."

 

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at the blond again, still not believe him. He shrugged his shoulders, "okay, whatever. Maybe when he does teach you or one of you shows me the proof, then I might believe you." 

 

Naruto shrugged his shoulders as well, "sounds like a plan to me. Now let's get some breakfast, I'm starving!" He stated, his smile back on his face as he grabs Shikamaru's hands and pulled him in the direction of the house. Sasuke followed behind them, giving an exasperated sigh as he did. However, before he could leave the clearing, Kyuubi grabbed him by the shoulder.

 

"What do you want?"

 

The Kyuubi smirked, "you know..." he started, "if you want this clan that you said you wanted to build to be strong. Then maybe you should talk to Naruto...he's got a great power hidden inside him that just might interest you."

 

 "Power, in the dobe? Get real..."Sasuke turned to the redhead, an intrigued look in his eyes, "what kind of power?"

 

The fox/clone chuckled, "for that, you will have to get to wait and see."

 

* * *

**A few hours later**

**Tazuna's bridge**

 

It was nearing lunch time when one of Tazuna's workers came over to talk to him. "Hey, check it out, that's the second guy to come to talk to him since we started working," Shikamaru whispered to his teammates. 

 

Both Naruto and Shikamaru looked up from their work. After getting to the half-finished bridge, Tazuna found his men milling around and starting to do their part. Tazuna informed them before had that when he started the bridge, there were at least sixty men willing to help him on the project, which wasn't too bad. The work went well for a few weeks until Gato got window what was happening and started sending his thugs over to delay the bridge work. Some of the workers with more spin were picked off first, Gato had the pleasure of publicly killing them in front of the whole village a few days after. Since then, there would be a couple of workers that would either quit or go missing until turning up dead in a public place the day after they went missing. It was a hard pill to swallow when Tazuna realized that even his speech about freedom wasn't getting through to his men anymore. That was when he made up his mind to go to Konoha for some help, with the money he had saved up for months, he was just able to afford a C rank, but even now, his works were still leaving left and right. I guess having genin protect you did nothing for their spirits. Anyway, after they got to the bridge, Naruto counted about twenty-five men in total that were still working on the bridge, actually, make that twenty-four now, since the guy that just came to talk to Tazuna just quite.

 

"Damit! If we keep losing people like this, this bridge will never get finished!" Naruto fumed as he set down a bag of dry cement. 

 

"Well, can you really blame them?" Shikamaru asked with a hand on his hip, "they're not ninjas, they're civilians, they don't know how to defend themselves against the guys that Gato sends. It's got to be a real drag for them to live like this every day, but I guess it beats the alternative." 

 

"Hn, but still, Naruto's got a point, with only about twenty or so workers, this bridge might just take the rest of this month and some of next month to finish." Sasuke stated as he picked up a toolbox, "I don't know about you two, but I don't want to be spending that long in such a depressing place."

 

 _"That's kinda ironic, seeing as how you live in a place that reeks of death."_  Naruto thought he sighed, "okay, enough is enough, I think it's time I really step up my game."

 

"What are you going to do, Naruto?" Shikamaru asked.

 

"Watch," Naruto ran up to Tazuna after the guy walked away, Tazuna was frustrated, that much was clear. Naruto was hoping that his idea will come in handy, if not...Nah, it'll work. "Hey, old man, I have an idea."

 

"Hm? Oh, yeah?" Tazuna asked with a frustrated sigh, he looked down at the blond for a moment before folding his arms, "alright, if your idea can help stop any more people from leaving the bridge and quitting because of that rat bastard, then I'm all ears."

 

"Well, I can't say that it'll stop them from leaving, but!" He quickly added when he saw the frown on the bridge builders face deepen, "what I have in mind is will doubling our efforts." Tazuna seemed interested, so he went on, "do you remember when we were fighting those Demon Brothers? When I was fighting one, then suddenly I saw there fighting the other guy? And then how I found you both in the forest?"

 

Tazuna thought for a moment, "huh, now that you mention it, I was wondering how you were in so many places at once. Okay, kid, so how'd you do it and how can that help me now?"

 

Naruto smirked and put his hands in a familiar cross sign, he created twenty shadow clones with matching smirks on their faces. "This jutsu is called the Shadow Clone jutsu, any activity they do or any book they read, I will remember it when they dispell. So, if you were to give one of them a crash course in how to help build a bridge, that clone can dispell and all the other clones, plus myself, will know what to do. Pretty cool, right?"

 

Tazuna was surprised by all the clones the blond made, he then smiled, "yeah, yeah, this might actually work!" He turned around to his works, he called for them to stop what they were doing and gather around. once everyone was surrounding the old man, Tazuna told them about Naruto's plan. "With that said, here's what we're going to do, Ido, Zan, I want you to take two of the clones and show them how to mix the cement. Tamaki, you show one clone how to secure the railing." Once Tazuna gave told given everyone a section of the bridge to work on with a clone, he sent them out to show the clones how things are done. The workers didn't seem to thrill at first, but were giving Tazuna the benefit of the doubt and did what he asked, when they were gone, he turned back to the original Naruto. "Hey, how many of those clones can you manage at one time?" 

 

"I think about a few dozens," the blond replied.

 

"Good, we're going to need them if we want to finish this bridge by the end of this month." Tazuna said happily as he turned back to the workers, "and hopefully not a moment too late."

 

"Why? What's happening at the end of the month?" Naruto asked, curiously.

 

Tazuna's frown dropped from his face for a second before his smile came back. He glanced over at the blond, "uh, I'll tell ya later, maybe after dinner, 'kay?"

 

Naruto was even more curious now but dropped the subject. He nodded his head and went back to his two teammates. "That jutsu is pretty handy after all," Sasuke stated as he adjusted a bag of dry cement on his shoulder with the toolbox still in his other hand. "Where did you learn it, was it that Kyuubi guy?"

 

"Hmm, no, not really...uh, I guess I'll tell you later, right now, we've got our work cut out for us," Naruto said as he picked up some planks of wood.

 

"Is there anything that I can do?" Shikamaru asked, "it's kinda boring just sitting around here and watching you two help out. I would like something to do, too," he stated/whined.

 

"Wow, a Nara that actually wants to work," Sasuke looked from Shikamaru to Naruto, "maybe you do have a great power in you after all."

 

"Yeah, it's called good dick, you want some," Naruto smirked.

 

"Wha-that's gross man, stop being so vulgar!" Sasuke stated indignantly, his cheeks were burning red from the comment.

 

Shikamaru gave the blond a disappointed look, "so is that all you think about in your spare time, Naruto? I'm disappointed in you." 

 

"Ne, ne, I was just kidding, Shika-chan, lighten up!" The blond laughed.

 

"That wasn't funny!" His teammates said in unison.

 

Naruto shrugged his shoulders, "well, whatever, if you really want something to do, Shika, you can go back to the house and make sure that Gato doesn't send any of his men there while we're here. Since Kakashi took that big L, we can't be sure when he'll wake up." He stated as he hefted the pile of wood onto his shoulder, "while you're there, you can check in with Kyuubi to see how far he's gotten with the seals."

 

"Those were seals? What are they for, training?" Sasuke asked.

 

"No, not training, but it will help us in our mission," Naruto explained.

 

Seeing as how Naruto will not give any more information than that, the Uchiha decided to get back to work, bringing the supplies to where they needed to be. Shikamaru sighed, "fine, I guess I'll be going now," he turned to leave but Naruto grabbed his hand suddenly, pulling him back towards him. Shikamaru turned to see what the blond wanted, he opened his open to ask, but it was covered with the blond's own mouth before he could make a sound. After about a minute, the blond pulled away from the kiss, leaving a slightly dazed and blushing Shikamaru in his wake. "Wah-what  was that for?"

 

Naruto gave him a bright smile, "for being you. I'll see you back at the house for dinner, okay?"

 

"Okay~" Shikamaru smiled back as he turned back around in a blissful daze on his way back to Tazuna's house.

 

Some of the bridge builders saw the action and chuckled a bit, "ah, young love."

 

"Reminds me of when I saw that age."

 

"That must have been decades ago for you, eh, Ido?"

 

"Hey, I'm not that old!" Everyone laughed as they got back to their jobs.

 

* * *

**With Shikamaru**

 

The Nara walked back through the town alone and found it to be just as Sasuke had described. Broken buildings and rundown old shops. Orphans huddled together by a burning trashcan for warmth as they tried to cook up a tiny finish that was clearly not going to fill them up. It was a sad sight to see indeed and he hoped that Naruto's plan worked to increase the progress of the bridge so this old village could be brought back to life. As he walked down the street, he saw a large building off in the distance, "that must be the nightclub that Sasuke was talking about earlier." He said to himself, he thought about going around it until he heard a scream coming from that direction, suddenly one of the front doors of the nightclub sprung open and someone ran out. Shikamaru quickly ran behind one of the nearby buildings just in case it was one of Gato's thugs, he didn't want to get into a fight, especially now that he was showing. From his hiding place, he looks in the direction of the club just in time to see a man run out after a girl.

 

"Ha! Where do you think you're going, bitch!" Yelled the man at the girl. Judging from his appearance, the guy was clearly one of Gato's thugs, he was big and with some muscles, but most of it was just fat. His hair was in a mo-hock, he had tattoos all over his back and arms, he didn't wear a shirt so his round belly was on show. The man wore baggy black pants with a silver chain hanging on the side, connected by his belt loops. As for the girl, she looked to be rather young to be going to a nightclub. Sure when you're a genin, you could do adult things, go to nightclubs, drink, have sex, get married...

 

But this wasn't a ninja village.

 

The girl looked to be close around nine or ten. She had long, golden brown hair that was pulled up into two ponytails with pompoms holding them in place. Her outfit was short, leaving little to the imagination. She had on a sequence skirt that barely covered her upper thighs, over the knee boots with a four-inch heel. The top was just a piece of sequenced material that went across her chest. Her face was caked in makeup, but the most noticeable thing about her would be the marks on her skin. Angry red marks that varied from long and straight, short and curved, shaped like a circle, bit marks, and even some black and blue spots that looked like a fist. Around her thighs, Shikamaru could just barely make out a red mark that went halfway around her thighs, something else that seemed noticeable was the girls figure. She was skinny, too skinny, to the point where he could almost count her ribs. But with the strength that she was using to try to escape the man showed that she was far from weak, but the man was still at the advantage.

 

Shikamaru ducked back behind the building he was hiding behind and sighed, "troublesome. If I go out there, I'm likely to be hurt or worse." He held up his wrist and channeled some chakra into the seal that was placed there. In a poof of smoke, Naruto was standing in front of him.

 

"Hey, Shika-chan, what's wrong? You used the seal, are you feeling okay?" Asked the blonde worriedly.

 

"Yeah I'm fine, but there's something that I need you to help me with," Shikamaru said hurriedly. The clone was about to ask what it was when another scream from the girl and what sounded like something breaking caught their attention. Looking back around the corner, they saw that the thug had hit the girl hard enough that she went flying back into an old semi-demolished brick wall across from the club. "Damn, this is really not good, we need to hurry."

 

"Huh? Shika-chan," Naruto looked at his mate, he had a nervous and worried look on his face that told him all he needed to know. "You want to save her, don't you?"

 

Shikamaru looked back at him, he nodded his head, "I can't possibly leave her. I mean, what if that was our daughter out there?!"

 

A surprised look came over the blond before he got a serious look on his face. "Don't worry, leave it to me." He took out a kunai and placed it on Shikamaru's palm, "if I'm going to be able to help, I'm going to need some of your blood."

 

"Why? What's that going to do?" Shikamaru asked.

 

"Shikamaru, I'm only a clone."

 

"Huh?"

 

"We don't have much time for this, so I'll just say this," the clone sliced the kunai across Shikamaru's palm quickly. Cutting the skin just deep enough to draw blood, but not so much to be fatal. He then took some of the blood from Shikamaru's palm and worked quickly, redrawing the seal on Shikamaru's wrist, "when you used the seal, it summoned a clone that would be able to help you whenever the real Naruto was either too busy or too far away to get to you in time. This you know, but what you don't know is that if you add some of your blood to the seal, then the clone will be able to go into battle mode long enough to take down the enemy and help get you to safety." He finished drawing the seal on his wrist and took out a cloth from his pocket to press against the wound to stop the bleeding, then he took a step back from Shikamaru, he started to glow a bit, a light blue aura coming over him for a second before it was gone. "Alright, I'm ready, what is your command, you can either say them or think them since we now have a mental connection through that seal."

 

Shikamaru shook off his shock soon enough and remembered where he was. "Right," he looked back around the corner to see the thug pick the little girl up from the floor where she had crumpled and was taking her back into the club. "I want you to take down that bastard and help me bring that girl back to the house so that I can have a look at her wounds."

 

"Understood," the clone said, not wasting a second, he stepped out from behind the corner and ran towards the thug at a blinding speed. As he got closer, his right hand turned into a sharp blade that was red in color, he pulled his hand back and shoved it forward just as the man turned towards him.

 

"Huh? What the fu-" before he could say anything else, the transformed hand was thrust into his throat and ripped out just as quickly as it went in. Naruto stopped in front of him, crouched down and thrust his blade hand into the thug's stomach in a flash, breaking directly through his back. A shower of blood exploded out from the man's neck, the clone ripped his arm out of the man's abdomen with more force than needed and managed to pull out something that seemed to be stuck. He pulled harder and forced the object out of the man's body, pushing him backward and letting him fall with a heavy thud. The object in the boy's hand happened to be red and looked bony in structure, the clone tossed it onto the ground a few feet away from him, revealing it to be his bloodied spinal cord. Turning back to the thug's body, he saw the man's hand still gripped tightly around the girl's hair where he was dragging her, he walked over to it and chopped the handoff in one fluid motion, no hesitation. Freeing the girl.

 

"Oi, Ganji, what's taking so long?" Came the voice of another thug from the door, "it shouldn't take more than five minutes to capture a little slut like...Hey! Wait a minute, what happened to Ganji!" The man asked as he now noticed the bloody body on the ground, he looked up to see who the culprit was, his eyes fell upon Naruto and he scowled. "Did you do this?" 

 

Naruto looked over to the newly arrived thug. This guy dressed the same as the first one, Ganji, except he was much more muscled than Ganji. Naruto looked over to the direction where Shikamaru was hiding,  _"shall I take care of this one, too?"_

 

_"We have no chose, but try to do it quickly. From the way this guy's talking, it seems like there might be others still inside the club that might be expecting them back."_

 

 _"I understand."_  The clone turned back to the man as he was making his way over to him.

 

The man walked up close to the clone and got in his face, ready to show him who was boss."Well, punk? Answer me! Did you do this or gaa!" The Naruto clone silenced the man by swiping upwards with his blade hand, the action caused the man to be sliced cleanly in half with both halves slowly being pushed apart from the blood flow. Both halves fell away from each other, landing on the ground with a softer thud than his friend, blood shot up into the sky. The clone acted quickly in grabbing the unconscious girl from the floor just second before any drops could land on either of them, his hand transformed back into a normal hand as he picked up the girl. He made his way back to Shikamaru just as quickly as he left, he held the girl bridal style and looked at Shikamaru with a smile, "let's hurry back to the house before I run out of chakra."

 

Shikamaru nodded his head and they started walking. Unbeknownst to them, a few street orphans saw what they did and ran off to tell people what they saw. 

 

Back at the house, Shikamaru opened the door for the clone to walk through with the unconscious girl. Tsunami was in the kitchen preparing lunch when they walked in. Inari was sitting at the table with a long face when he looked up to see the door open. "what are you two doing here, I thought...?" He asked then paused when he noticed the girl in the blond's hands, "who's she?" He wondered as he got out of his chair.

 

"This is a girl from the nightclub. We saved her when she was trying to run away," Shikamaru explained while the clone went over to the living room area to lay the girl down. Shikamaru followed him over there after closing the door, and Inari followed him.

 

By this point, Tsunami had looked up from what she was doing in the kitchen. She was shocked at what she heard and quickly ran off to get the first aid kit. While she was gone, the clone checked over the brunet for any more injuries other than the visible ones. He concluded his search and turned to Shikamaru to tell him about his findings. "From the looks of it, she has a concussion from the hit to the back of her head. A couple of broken bones, maybe a fracture, I can't really tell which is which because of the shape her body is in and my low chakra levels have hindered my diagnoses." He explained, "the best thing you can do for her as of right now is to let her rest, get her something to drink and eat, and try not to let her move around too much. Both of her ankles looked to have been broken or fractured in a few places. I have to go now, my time's up."

 

Shikamaru nodded and the clone disappeared. Inari looked at the spot where the clone once was, he was in awe, "so wait, he wasn't even really here?!" The little boy asked incredulously.

 

"Yes and no, that was a shadow clone that was helping me save this girl from two of Gato's thugs," Shikamaru explained while he set up a bed for the girl to sleep in.

 

Tsunami came back in while the clone was still talking, after hearing what was said, she felt so sorry for the little girl. She also thought that she was very brave to do what she had done. Although she did wonder if it was the best idea for her to be here, it was unheard of someone actually escaping Fallen Crescent. Many of the villagers had dubbed it that The Pit of Hell because of all the unspeakable things that went on behind those walls. He made her way over to Shikamaru and her son with the first aid kit, "is there anything that I can help with?" She asked kindly.

 

"Yeah, actually, she's going to need water and lots of rest. She also has a concussion," Shikamaru said as he accepted the first aid kit from Tsunami. 

 

Tsunami nodded her head, "alright, lunch is almost ready, do you think she'll wake up long enough to eat?"

 

Shikamaru frowned as he turned back to the unconscious girl, "I don't know. She hit a brick wall pretty hard when she was trying to escape, and there's no telling what all she's been through since she was there. Uhm, I think we should start with getting her out of these skimpy clothes and wipe off all that ugly makeup off of her."

 

"I agree," Tsunami said as he got up to get some clothes for the girl to use. She looked over to her son, "come on Inari, you can help me get her some food and water."

 

"Okay," Inari said slowly after a second of looking over the girls many, many scars and wounds. When the two were gone, Shikamaru turned back to make a bed for the girl.

 

* * *

**With Naruto**

 

The plan worked! So far, that is. After the workers showed the Naruto clones how to do some things, the clones memorized the way it was meant to be done and started to dispell one by one, delivering the information back to the original. Once Naruto had all the instructions that were needed, he created thirty more clones and got to work with helping the workings. The workers themselves were impressed with the way that the clones had absorbed the information like sponges and got to work without complaint. They were getting things done much quicker than they had before, they were able to add on a completely new section onto the bridge by the time the sun was starting to set. It was only a few feet but it was better than they had done in weeks. As everyone packed up and started to leave the bridge, a sense of accomplishment driving their steps, Naruto connected with Kyuubi through their mind link. During the working hours, he felt one of his clones dispell and got memories that were not from the time spent on the bridge. He saw Shikamaru looking panicked, nervous, and a little scared, something that he didn't like seeing. Then he saw two men die, one was stabbed through the belly and throat, while the other was sliced in half, both were civilians. He remembered the seal that was used to summon the clone with these memories, remembering that it was one of the seals that Kyuubi had given to Shikamaru that morning. Kyuubi didn't say what the other two were, but that one was a summoning seal of protection, the concept coming from an old acquaintance of the fox from way back when. It intrigued the blond to no end and he was happy that he helped Shikamaru applied it earlier before leaving the house.  Looking up at the sky, nightfall was fast approaching, he picked up the pace so that he could make it back to the house to check on everything.

 

_"Yo, fox, are the seals ready?"_

 

**"Ready and waiting kit, so hurry up and get your ass back here. Also, there's something that I need you to see, meet me in the forest after everyone falls asleep."**

 

_"Something important, huh? Like what?"_

 

 **"What did I just say? Damn it, you don't know how to listen,"** the Kyuubi cut the connection and the blond chuckled. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**To be continued...**


	17. Backup arrives, old friends unite

 

The walk back to Tazuna's house was uneventful. As they walked, Sasuke stopped in front of the nightclub he saw earlier to show Naruto what he was talking about, much to Tazuna's horror. "See, this is the building, I was talking about," he said.

 

"Hm, so this nightclub is owned and operated by Gato and his men, ne, Tazuna-Jiji?" Naruto asked as he noted the look on Tazuna's faces, "care to explain?"

 

"Uh, um, yeah, just-just not here," Tazuna said as he hurried the two boys away from the front of the building. As they walked, a man they didn't know came running up to them, well, Naruto and Sasuke didn't know the man, but Tazuna did. "Huh? Yu, what's the hurry?" He asked the seemingly homeless man that came running up to them.

 

The man, Yu, stopped in front of them, doubling over out of breath. "That boy..." he started as he tried to catch his breath, but it took him a minute before he stood up straight.

 

"Huh? Which one? I've got two here," Tazuna asked slightly joking, although, his face seemed to have a bit of concern mixed in.

 

"That boy, the blond one. One of the orphans is spreading a story about him and another boy with black hair," Yu explained.

 

"What?" Tazuna asked, "but that's just a story, right? These two were busy helping me on the bridge all day! How could he...wait," he looked down at Naruto, "did you-"

 

"Let me stop you right there," Naruto interrupted, "before you even ask it, no, I did not send one of my clones out into the village to cause any trouble. However, Shikamaru does have a seal on him that will summon a clone to help him out during dangerous situations." He turned to the man named Yu, "so, what's the full story?"

 

"Well, I don't know what you people are talking about, but those kids keep saying that they saw you and another kid kill two of Gato's men! And it was right here in front of Hell's Pit!" The man then got down on his knees in front of Naruto and started to cry, "look, kid, I don't know if that story is true or not, but please. Please! If you can get my dear Chichi out of that place, I will be forever in your debt. I'll do anything you like since I don't have any money to pay you like Tazuna, I can be your servant! A slave even! But please, yo-"

 

"Woah, okay, calm down mister, first of all, I don't really have much of an idea of what you're talking about. Chichi, who's that supposed to be?" The blond asked, trying to get the desperate man to let go of him.

 

"Oh, right, sorry," the man sniffed as he sat on his knees in front of the trio. "You see after the village had started to go downhill because of Gato's stupid tax's, no one could really pay them...So, instead of taking money from us, he started taking our loved ones. He took my daughter, Chichi when she was only four to that damn nightclub over there. I tried multiple times to get her back, but Gato's men wouldn't even let me get past the door before kicking me out." Tears started to fall from his eyes, "so that's why, when I heard about what you did to those thugs earlier, I had to come and find you and ask you for your help. So please!" He bowed lowly to the ground as he begged, "help me get my daughter back!"

 

Sasuke sighed, looking at Naruto, he wondered why he always seemed to be getting all the attention. But, seeing the state that the village was in, he couldn't blame this guy for latching onto the first ray of sunshine he could. No matter how desperate and fleeting it seemed. He shared a look with the blond and knew that he was already making plans to get inside of the club. Naruto, for his part, stood silently as he listened to the man, remembering something that Shikamaru had said earlier when his clone dispelled.  _"What if that was our daughter!"_ Of course, there was no way for him to tell the gender of his own kid at the moment, still, the thought resonated with him on a subconscious level. Kneeling down, he placed a hand on the man's back, getting him to look up at him. "Hey, mister, can you get some people together and met me at the village square in about an hour? I think I can help everyone try to get back the ones they've lost. It's going to take a bit or doing, but with a little help from you guys, I know I can do it."

 

The man looked at Naruto with gentle dark brown eyes, his tear-stricken faces looked to help a semblance of hope in it. He nodded, "sure, I-I think I can do that, b-but what is it that we can do to help? We don't have skills like any of you ninjas."

 

Naruto gave him a bright smile, "that's why you guys will be perfect for this job. Now, hurry and gather as many people as you can." 

 

The man nodded and got up to do the tasked that was asked of him. In nearly a blink of an eye, the man was gone. Tazuna looked at Naruto curiously, he was skeptical about this plan, but after what he witnessed on the bridge, he held some faith in the boy.  _"I, myself, maybe a coward sometimes, but still, this kid is very brave. To try to take on almost half of Gato's army seems like suicide, yet, with that clone thingy he did before, I have a feeling that he just might stand to surprise me yet again."_ While on the way back to the house, Naruto had a conversation with the Kyuubi to see where he was and what he was doing. It turned out that after he left that morning, the Kyuubi had been working on the seals, checking and double checking to see if they were ready to use or not. After that, he had spent the rest of the day sleeping in the forest with Yuki, the bunny, keeping him company as the rest of the clones dispelled after finishing their part on the seals. Now he was just waiting for Naruto to come back so that they may start placing the seals.

 

* * *

**Tazuna's house**

 

Naruto walked into the house first, followed by Tazuna and Sasuke, he looked around for a second, looking for Kyuubi. The first sight he saw when he walked in was Shikamaru in the kitchen wearing a frilly apron and making dinner. Hearing the door open, Shikamaru turned around to see Tazuna walk in with his husband and teammate, he smiled at Naruto with a mixing bowl in hand, "welcome home, babe." He said, seemingly surrounded by a soft glow and hearts that no one else could see but Naruto, "...Naruto?" Shikamaru walked over to the blond and waved a hand in front of him worriedly because as soon as he turned to the blond, it seemed like he froze, "um, is he okay?" 

 

Sasuke shrugged his shoulders, "who knows," and walked into the house more. Looking to his left, he saw the girl that was saved earlier, she was still laying in the bed that was made up for her. She had yet to wake up since that evening and turned to Shikamaru, "who's that?"

 

"Huh, oh, her?" Shikamaru asked as he turned away from trying to get Naruto to come back to reality, "I saved her with the help of Naruto's clone earlier." He turned away from the blond, going back to what he was doing before.

 

"Hn, so what's her story?" Sasuke asked as he took a set on the edge of the living room and waited for dinner to be finished. 

 

"On the way back from the bridge, I saw her run out of the nightclub followed by one of Gato's thus. I hid behind a building to see what would happen next when I saw the guy trying to bring her back inside. She had on a very revealing outfit on that showed a bunch of her scars and stuff, plus, her face was caked in make, most of it was running since she was crying at the time. That was when I used the seal on my wrist to summon a clone, with its help, she was saved. We brought her back her and she's been resting ever since."

 

"Right," Naruto said, seemingly coming out of his dreamlike state. Walking over to the living room area, he looked over to where the girl was resting, she looked young to be associated with a nightclub. He walked over to the bed to get a closer look, since bringing her here, Tsunami had done a pretty good job at cleaning her up. He could hardly tell if it was the same girl from his clone's memories in comparison. The girl's long, golden brown hair laid freely around her head, her face was free of makeup now, so har fair skin, slightly irritated skin could be seen perfectly. He guessed that the redness of the irritation came from the makeup that she was forced to wear. The clothes, which were clearly Tsunami's, hung loosely on her, her arms were thin and small, covered in scars of all times. From burn marks to scratches, "so, she hasn't woken up at all since she was brought here?" He asked as he continued to look at her.

 

"No," Tsunami said sadly as she looked down at the sleeping girl. "I'm starting to get a little worried about her, from what Shikamaru-chan said, this girl had hit her head on a brick wall pretty hard. I'm no doctor, but I'm pretty sure that could kill a person, right?"

 

"With enough force, yes," Naruto said as he sat down, "but," he lifted his hand, placing it over the girl's forehead and closing his eyes. As he did so, his hand started to glow a reddish-yellow, he focused the girl, shutting out everything distracting around him.

 

"What are you doing?" Inari asked, who was sitting next to his mom across from Naruto.

 

"I'm trying to see what I can do for her," Naruto said in a monotone voice. His face scrunched up a bit as his hand moved over the spot where her heart was located. A frown appeared on his face when he noticed what was there.

 

"I thought Kyuubi didn't teach you how to do chakra scanning yet," Sasuke inquired as he walked over to the girl's bed and sat down. Tazuna followed suit, sitting next to his daughter while letting his grandson sit in his lap, he gave a pitying look to the girl laying in the bed.

 

"He didn't, and this isn't chakra scanning," Naruto answered as his hand moved over to her left shoulder before moving over to her rightsholder a second later.

 

"Uhm, what is chakra scanning?" Tsunami asked curiously.

 

"Actually, it's called Mystical Palm, but the way it works is basically chakra scanning." Shikamaru stated as he finished preparing dinner, everyone, minus "the user will use their chakra to scan the inside of a person's body so they could give a medical report on said person's condition. They can also use the Mystical Palm Jutsu to help heal the person with their chakra, but, you will need a very precise control over your chakra."

 

"Hn, so if you're not using that, what are you using, dobe?" Sasuke asked as he watched Naruto's hand move over to the center of the girl's abdomen.

 

"This is actually a jutsu that Mystical Palm was based on. It's called Spite Healer, the way it works is by adding chakra some of your chakras to the person's body in order to heal them. The chakra will form around the damaged area and start fixing whatever damage is there, while also trying to reverse the effects it may have. The only thing is, is that it requires a lot of focus and a compatible spirit. It's a little complicated to explain fully, just know that in order to do this, you need to not only focus your chakra but also your mind on a spiritual level, then gently filter your chakra into the area. Another way to do this would be to try to heal the whole body at once, but that would require way more time and energy than this." Sasuke looked to the girl's face, it seemed like she was in a little pain for a second before it went back to normal. By the time that Naruto got down to her legs, he opened his eyes, "hm..."

 

"Is there something wrong?" Tsunami asked worriedly.

 

"No, but, it seems like whoever took this girl in had thought ahead and placed a tracking device in her right thigh some time ago," the blond explained.

 

"What! So you're saying that Gato's men know where she is right now?" Inari asked, fear evident in his voice, "wait, you said that that thing you're doing before reverse damage, right? Can't you just, like, reverse it or something?"

 

"I could, but the position that they placed it makes it really difficult to remove, so much so that me doing anything could hinder her ability to walk. Then again," Naruto started to mumble to himself inaudible for a bit before he stood up. "We're going to have to leave this for tomorrow."

 

"What! B-but what about G-" Tsunami stated in fear, but Naruto cut in.

 

"I understand your fear, Tsunami, I really do. However, will not try to help someone if I know myself that it might only hurt them in the end. But, that aside, we have a bigger problem to deal with tonight, and that is what Gato's going to do once he gets the report on one of his club girls getting away. I don't know if anyone had witnessed what happened back at the club other than the orphans, so well need to start preparing for his arrival as soon as possible." He looked to Tazuna, "I have a way to keep Gato from coming back to the village, but we will need to get to work right away. We're also going to need to take care of the other thugs already in the village, will you be willing to help out?"

 

Tazuna nodded, "yeah, I don't know what I can really do, I'm still an old man after all, but I'll do what I can."

 

"That's good enough for me," Naruto said as he started to make his way over to the door.  _"Kyuubi, come to the house, we're putting the plan into action now."_

 

 **"Well, I've been** **waiting long enough,"**  the Kyuubi replied,  **"I'll summon some clones to help me bring the over the seals."**

 

 _"Good, we'll wait for you outside in front of the house."_ Naruto put back on his shoes and waited for Tazuna, as he did, Sasuke and Inari came along with him, Naruto looked at the little boy, "where do you think you're going?"

 

"I-I-I want to help!" Inari said, scared but also a little determined.

 

"Help? Weren't you the one that told us when we came here that we shouldn't even try to up against Gato because we would die at his hand?" Naruto asked as he gaged the youngest male of the group.

 

"Ye-yes, but...but I changed my mind," Inari stated, Naruto raised an eyebrow at this, wondering what brought this on. Inari seemed to have gotten the same feeling from his eyes, so he explained, "I don't know why, but ever since I was younger, it always seemed like Gato was in control. Like no one could get away from him without paying the price for it, and then you guys came." Inari looked up at the blond, looking more determined than before, "you managed to kill two of Gato's thugs and save that girl and you're also helping the village even though grandpa lied about how much we need your help."

 

Naruto rubbed his chin, looking between his teammates and his client, "the kid does seem to have a point." Sasuke admitted, "we're only been here about, what? a day and a half, and you've already done a lot for them. I hate to admit this, but..." he sighed grudgingly, "if you were our sensei, then I would follow you."

 

Naruto smirked, "that must have been hard to say."

 

"Don't mention it," Sasuke said looking at the blond, "I mean it, dobe, you tell anyone back home, I will deny it!"

 

Naruto lifted his hand in surrender, "alright, alright, my lips are sealed."

 

Just then, the group heard the sound of footsteps heading in their direction, everyone was on high alert for a second before they saw who it was. Kyuubi stood before them with a smirk on his lips. On his head, he saw the rabbit sit, looking as if it was living its best life. "Okay brat, we're all packed up and ready to go, did you send the clones ahead already?" He asked, behind him stood his clones, each holding something different, three groups of three were holding a couple stacks of circular paper that were a few yeards long all around covered in seals. A group of four were holding a stack of rectangular papers that were a few yeards long and a few feet wide, also covered in seals, while the center of seal matrix held the kanji for 'Guard'. Ten clones were holding five boxes the size of your average storage bin, four were holding a few cans of what looked like paint, and the last one was holding a large book that was five feet, six inches all around. Lastly, there was one clone that was holding a giant scroll that was slightly larger than a summoning scroll.

 

"No, but I might have something better," Naruto stated as stepped down from the porch, "Alright, looks like we've got everything, let's head out." He then turned to Inari, "if you're going to help, then remember your determination from this moment. Remember what you fight for and make it your shield against your enemies. Once that's done, you will be able to deflect anything that comes your way." Inari looked at Naruto and nodded since the blond was happy with the look he saw in the boy's eyes, he turned back to the clones, created some of his own that were meant to stay behind at the house just in case, and signaled everyone else to follow him to the town.

 

Shikamaru watched Naruto leave with the others, Tsunami watched as well as she placed a hand on his shoulders. "They're going to be alright, don't you think?" 

 

He looked up at the worried woman and nodded, "yeah. They'll be just fine." At that moment, they heard the sound of coughing, looking back over to the living room area, they saw that it was the girl. She was laying next to Kakashi, so the sound could have come from either one. They closed the door and went over to see how she was feeling.

 

As they left the wooded area, Naruto turned to Tazuna, Inai, and Sasuke, "by the way." He started with a sly smile, "if anyone asks, his name his Kurama, a boy I just met in the village, alright?"

 

This confused them and the Kyuubi pouted, "Kurama, huh...why not tell them the truth, Naruto?" He asked with a bit of a smirk.

 

"Because the truth causes more trouble than anything else, so Kurama, you'll just have to deal with it for now." Naruto stated, "I'll explain why later Sasuke, no need to worry." He answered the Uchiha's suspicious look, "he's a good guy, I swear." Sasuke didn't seem to be convinced. But, if he kept his mouth shut, he thought that he could use this asblackmaile to get the blond to teach him every useful jutsu he knows. Too bad for him, Naruto had already thought of that and was expecting it, he would have been surprised if the Uchiha wasn't thinking this way. With that said, the rest of the trip was a quiet one.

 

* * *

**The village square, 30 min later**

 

Making their way to the village square, they came across the sight of a sizable group of villagers armed to the teeth with as many homemade weapons that they could get their hands on. Along with the group of villagers stood two groups of Konoha ninjas. Teams eight and ten stood with their sensei's Asuma and Karuni as they spoke with the villagers to see what was happening and find out why they were standing around with so many weapons on hand. "Oi, Hina, Cho, did the old man send you?" Naruto called out as his group came closer to the ninjas and villagers, speaking of the villagers, they didn't seem all too trusting of the new faces in the village.

 

"Oh, Naruto!" Hinata said waving, her faces bright as she saw her friend, everyone turned around when they heard her speak, "hey, Naruto, Sasuke, yes the Hokage sent us." Then she noticed that someone, two someones, were missing, "where's Shikamaru and Kakashi sensei?"

 

"Shikamaru's back at the house with Tazuna's daughter, while Kakashi's been knocked out since after we were attacked for the second time on the way over here." Naruto explained, "when did you guys get here?"

 

"Not too long ago," Chouji stated through a mouthful chip.

 

"Sasuke-kun!" Two banshees squealed as they ran over the Uchiha, who drowned in displeasure. The two banshees latched onto either side of his arm since they didn't have their usual fangirl crowd to fight over him for, but as soon as they did, a glaring match between the two girls soon started. Much to Sasuke's annoyance, he couldn't think of any way short of either killing or hurting them to get away, so he had to endure their tortuous ways. 

 

"Uzumaki," Karuni came over to the blond, she had an obvious dislike for the boy for a long time and it showed, just like the rest of the villagers. Asuma did as well, but for the sake of the mission, they pushed down their dislike for the boy, "report, what happened after your teams encounter with the demon brothers."

 

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the woman, he could see right through her. In fact, he remembered her appearance in some of the mobs that attacked him when he was younger. He regarded her professionally, though, as to not sour the pot. He turned back to Hinata and Chouji since he would rather speak to them anyway, but he spoke loud enough so that everyone could hear. "After taking care of the demon brothers, Kakashi stated that we should go back, however, I thought it was in poor taste to leave our client high and dry like that, so with a quick deliberation, we decided to continue the mission, but to call for backup eight away. It was left up to me to send for backup when I did, I included a brief report of what happened. Meanwhile, we continued on our way here up until we ran into another missing ninja named Zabuza Momochi, he was hired by Gato the tyrant to snuff out Tazuna's life. Kakashi-" Karuni narrowed her eyes at the lack of respect that the blond boy was speaking of his sensei, "engaged the enemy, we won, then came to went to Tazuna's house to rest. Then today, we started the job we were hired to do, but Kakashi still remains out of commission."

 

"Hm, so you left you teammate and your unconscious sensei on their own to fend for themselves?" Asuma asked after blowing out a stream of smoke from his cigaret.

 

"I wouldn't say that I left some of my clones behind to watch over the house. If one dispells, I'll be notified instantly," Naruto explained. 

 

Of course, when Naruto said clone, those that didn't know him all thought it was the regular clone jutsu and not the shadow clone one.

 

"Very well then," Karuni said as her red eyes turned to the rest of the group behind Naruto. She noticed the redhead that looked just like Naruto, "who are you?"

 

The Kyuubi smirked, "I'm Ky-"

 

"Kurama," Naruto interrupted, "I know he looks just like me and I have no idea why, but after arriving in the village, I met him and we became quick friends." He lied smoothly, in his mind he could feel the disappointment coming from the Kyuubi who was planning to go against Naruto's earlier suggestion by telling everyone who he really was. It seemed like his kit was a step ahead of him one again. Naruto sent his smugness back to to the Kyuubi through their link in replay before he focused back on what was happening. Both jonin seemed to be skeptical about the matter.

 

"Whatever, what we really want to know is what's happening now." Kiba Inuzuka, who had seen the blond around every now and then after graduation and was still confused about his feelings towards him because of a recent event that happened a few weeks earlier. But that was a story for a later time. 

 

"What's happening now is that we're going to be putting up these seals around the village." Sasuke stated, still confined to his fangirl prison, "if you guys are willing to help, I'm sure that Naruto can tell you what to do. But if not, then you all can stay out of our way." The two girls holding him hostage stopped glaring at each other for a moment to squeal at how manly the Uchiha sounded and squealed, nearly taking out his eardrums in the process.

 

"Seal?" Karuni asked.

 

"Uh, he means these," Kyuubi/Kurama stated as he gestured to the large piles of parchment paper the clones were holding. 

 

"What do they do?" Shino asked who existence, like his father, was also forgotten until he spoke. Although, Naruto still noticed his curious look for the seals the moment he saw both teams.

 

Hinata and Chouji walked over to the stacks of seals and had a look at one of them. Hinata was impressed, "whoa, aren't these level fifty?" She asked the blond who had been teaching her a little about seals since the day after his genin test.

 

"Yeah, they are. It's actually a very complicated one which needs to be placed in different areas of the village and activated at the same time. Then held together by the main seal which will need to be drawn quickly over those so that it will work properly." Naruto explained, he then turned to the Kyuubi, "you can start telling the villagers what to do to set up the seal. I'll join you as soon as I can." Kyuubi nodded and signaled the clones to follow him, Karuni and Asuma kept an eye on the redhead as he did that. Naruto went on to explain the seals but was interrupted by a certain pink haired fangirl.

 

"Yeah right, like you could ever come up with something as complex as that! I bet Sasuke-kun was the one that came up with it," Sasuke yelled at the blond male before turning lovey-dovey eyes to her crush, "right, Sasuke-kun?"

 

Sasuke gave her an annoyed look in return, "can you get your useless ass off me? Naruto may be a dobe, but he's been way more useful than both of you are being right now."

 

"Oh, Sasuke-kun, you don't mean that, right?" Sakura asked, feeling hurt.

 

"I do," Sasuke stated as he was finally able to rid both of his arms from the fangirls grip. "You can both stay put so you don't get in the way," he said as he came to stand next to Naruto with his arms folded, waiting expectantly, "who's this those things supposed to work anyway."

 

"As I said before, they need to be placed and activated at the same time. But, since none of your are seal masters, really know how anything in depth about it, Kurama and I will do that part." Naruto explained, "the main goal of the seal is to build an invisible wall around the village, then surround it in a dome so that it will keep anyone with bad intention out of the village. The wall makes it impossible for anyone outside to come in without either being invited or is a resident of the village. The dome will watch over everyone in the village, if anything bad happens within the village, it will notify the highest authority figure or someone who can help immediately. The dome will also have the ability to defend the village from outside threats," he explained a little tiredly. He hated explaining sealing to some people who he knows wouldn't believe he's capable of that, with the looks of Sakura, Ino, Karuni, and Asuma, he could see that they were the main ones that didn't believe in him and his abilities about the seal. While Hinata and Chouji were impressed with the concept, Chouji being so impressed that he paused in his eating of chips. Naruto tried to teach him a little bit about sealing but he said was too confusing for him. Sasuke seemed to be considering the potential of the seals because of the seals that Kyuubi had given him earlier, which he hadn't had much chance to use yet because they were helping with the bridge. Shino seemed intrigued and may be interested in learning more. Kiba had a lost look on his face at how Naruto had made such a seal himself, while also seeming a little interested in how it was going to work. Karuni and Asuma looked at him th same way his other senseis had looked at him when he was still in the academy and had done well on his assignments. Before he gave up hope on being accepted by any of them.

 

"Hmph, and who exactly did you come across the knowledge to make such a complicated seal?" Karuni asked with her arms folded in front of her, she didn't like the way that the so-called 'demon' seemed to have this much knowledge about...just anything.

 

Naruto rolled his eyes, already expecting this, "look, believe what you like, think what you like, but when I came here, I had a job to do. If you hinder my team from what we were paid to do then I'll make sure the old man receives a full report on everyone involved. I'll make sure to state each person's roles throughout and let him decide what to do with you then. Although, until that happens, you have two choices, help me help the village, or stay out of the way." He turned to Hinata, Sasuke, and Chouji, "come on guys, I'll show you what you can do."

 

"Hey, you're not going anywhere," Asuma stepped forward, "you are not the superior here, we are. We will command this mission from here on until Kakashi can retake command of his team, understand, genin." His eyes narrowed at Naruto as he spoke, the other genin in the area could feel some killing intent rolling off of him as if he was ready to restrain the whiskered blond if anything. This surprised Sasuke a little, as well as Ino, Chouji, and Hinata who have yet to see the man get so angry. Shino observed the interaction with a neutral view like his father taught him and the rest of his clan to do. And Kiba was a little fearful of what was happening, but couldn't make himself move out of curiosity of what might happen next.

 

Sure Naruto was a patient guy through most things, but, this situation was making his stomach turn. He was starting to wonder why he let himself live in a that hated him for so long. Surely the answer couldn't have been because he loved the place, he hasn't held any love for the village since he was about four, even then it was a stretch. Yet now, he was really starting to reconsider his reason for his continued loyalties of the village that caused him so much pain. Now that he was older, now that he was a genin, now that he was getting stonger...should he really stay? The answer? He wasn't sure, he would hate to have to take Shikamaru way from his parents and clan. Yet at the same time, he wondered if he could take them with them by creating a seal that erased their memories of the village... No, that wouldn't do, the hunter ninjas that came after them will surely tell them, explain about their life in the village and how they suddenly left with the demon and his mate. No, that was a messy situation with just him and Shikamaru alone, he couldn't add his in-laws in the mix, and then there was the fact that he was going to be a father...He is a father already, actually, not to Shikamaru's unborn child, but for someone else in the village. Another fact that will have to be explained at a later date...

 

Taking a deep breath, "do what you want," Naruto stated then went up in smoke. Showing that he was actually a shadow clone all along, the jonin were shocked as they started looking around the area to see where the blond had gone. They could not believe that they were talking to a clone, they couldn't believe they were unable to tell the difference. Usually, a regular clone jutsu was made with one-tenth of the chakra of the user, much like the water clones that Zabuza used, so it was noticeable to anyone above jonin level. Even some genin who paid attention through the many, many painfully boring lectures, would know that since the clone jutsu was made with lass chakra, it will not permit a shadow of any kind, plus, if the light were to hit it just right, it will sometimes show as transparent. But obviously, Shadow clones were able to show their own shadow because they were solid, its also harder to tell the difference between a shadow clone and the user without really paying attention.

 

"Where did he go?" Karuni asked as she looked around the square for the blond. It was in her search that she noticed something else missing, "where did that redhead's head go with all the villagers that were just here?"

 

"Not only that," Asuma said as he dropped his cigaret to the grown, putting it out with his foot. "When did the rest of the genin leave?" He wondered, the only other people that were with them now was Ino and Sakura, who were also looking around themselves, just as confused. All four of them were standing in the same spot that they had been before Naruto's group appeared. Looking up in the sky, he scowled, "it's night too, looks about sometime after midnight. I didn't think we were standing here for that long."

 

Karuni had a shocked look on her face, "wait, that's impossible...could-could it be that the demon had placed us in a genjutsu some point?" 

 

Asuma growled, "whatever the case may be, we need to find out what we mist in that time. If it's only been a few hours since we were put under, then we might have time to stop whatever the demon is doing."

 

"I agree," Karuni nodded.

 

"Uhm, sensei, I don't understand, what just happened?" Ino asked.

 

"Yeah, where's Sasuke-kun!" Sakura cried.

 

"Calm down, Sakura, we'll find him," Karuni stated, "Ino, you go with Asuma, Sakura, you're with him. We'll split up and look for them together."

 

"Yes, Sir/Ma'am!" Ino and Sakura said in unison.

 

* * *

**Several hours earlier**

**What really happened**

 

Naruto and friends were walking up to the group of armed villager and the newly arrived shinobi teams. He turned to the Kyuubi, "put the jonin in a genjutsu, Sakura, and Ino too, but leave everyone else unharmed," he ordered.

 

"Oh, what brought this on?" Kyuubi asked, "any particular thing you want them to see?"

 

"Something simple, don't scare them, I don't want their screams to attract attention."

 

"Why are you putting them in a gemjusu?" Inari asked curiously as the Kyuubi left to do what the blond asked.

 

"Its called genjutsu, not gemjusu, secondly, if I don't, that two jonin over there will make it difficult for us to do what we need to." Naruto explained, "As for Sakura and Ino, well, they're just annoying. By taking them out of the way, we'll be able to set up all the seals, once the seals are up, an invisible wall will surround the village to keep bad guys Gato out. There will also be a dome that will appear around the village that can protect everyone inside the village and defend against other bad people."

 

"Done," Kyuubi said as he came back over to stand by Naruto, "oh, and also, I got your friends to join us."

 

"Hey, Naruto, what's up?" Chouji said as he walked over to the group along with Shino, Hinata, Kiba, and the villagers.

 

"Hey guys, this is Tazuna, the bridge builder that paid our team for the mission before things started going sideways.

 

Tazuna blushed as scratched the back of his head, "again, I'm sorry about that."

 

"This is his grandson, Inari," Naruto indicated to the little boy who waved at them.

 

"And this is," he turned to the Kyuubi, "this Kyuubi, but you can call him Kurama."

 

"Yo," Kyuubi waved.

 

Then Naruto turned to Inari and Tazuna, "this are ninjas from our village. Chouji Akamichi, Hinata Hyuuga, Kiba Inuzuka, and Shino Abarame," he said pointed them out respectively. "They're here to help us on the mission."

 

"Really?" Tazuna looked to the new ninjas, "thank you guys so much," he said with a grateful bow.

 

"It's no problem, Mr. Tazuna," Hinata said with a smile. 

 

Shino step forward, "Naruto, if I might ask, why did you put our sensei and fellow genin under a genjutsu?"

 

Kyuubi placed a hand on the bug user lightly, Shino turned to look at the red-haired Naruto clone curiously. "Don't worry, kid, they'll catch up as soon as we're done. However, it would be best if they stayed out of the way for now."

 

Shino nodded, seeming to accept the answer for the moment, but was curious as to what they might be doing. Kiba seemed to be wondering the same thing, "so what are we doing now?"

 

"Glad you asked, Kiba," Naruto said happily, "if you all will follow me, we can get started on the barrier before the sun goes down."

 

**To be continued**


	18. When things went wrong

**With Naruto and the others**

 

The placement of the seals was going well.

 

Naruto made extra clones to help the villagers place the seals around the village, as well as avoid Gato's thus who were being more active tonight. They were not sure of why, but they were positive that it had something to do with that girls escape earlier. Working quickly, both Naruto and Kyuubi directed everyone in their part, handing out paint cans and brushes to some, while others helped in putting down the large seals. Once the large seals were placed down, the villagers were instructed in on how they should paint over the seal so that nothing went wrong. The circular seals focused around parts of the village with the most history, while the rectangular ones were placed towards the outskirts of the village. It took quite some time to place all the seals and then paint correctly over them, by the time that they were close to being done, it was almost morning. As everyone was busy doing that, the original Naruto and some spare clones and villagers were taking care of the thugs so everyone can work in peace. The fight between them and Gato's thugs was a little tough, but thanks to Naruto's help, they were able to defeat them. Hearing the commotion coming from the streets made the other villagers that had been too scared at first, looking out to see what was happening. Seeing the thugs being taken down by the blond ninjas and their fellow villagers made them want to stand up for themselves also, so they grabbed what they could and joined the fight.  

 

The last place they hit was the nightclub. Thinking up a plan on the fly, Naruto rounded up three of his clothes to sneak inside while the rest of his clones and the villagers stayed outside to fight. 

 

On the inside of the club, they saw girls of all ages, young and old, dancing on poles mindlessly to really bad pop music that Naruto's never heard before. In the booths around the club were grown men doing sexual things that should not be down to anyone under the age of nineteen to twenty. Towards the back, there was a second level that couldn't be seen from their ground level hiding spot, the stairs leading up to the second level was lit colorfully to match the flashing strobe lights all around the room. The music was so loud to the point of being disorienting, coupled with the alcohol that was being served, it was no wonder the girls on the poles look like they didn't know where they were. Naruto felt a presence behind him, preparing to fight if anything, but calming down once he realized that it was Sasuke and Hinata who finally joined him. Earlier, before getting to the club, Naruto sent off a clone to tell Sasuke, Hinata, Chouji, Shino, and Kiba to meet him at the back entrance so he could tell them his plan. When they arrived, Naruto told Hinata, Sasuke, and Shino to search the back of the club, without getting caught, to see if they could find where Gato's men were hiding the captured girls. When only two out of the three came back, Naruto asked why.

 

"While we were searching the club, we were able to find a lower level in the building." Sasuke explained, "it was the basement, it looked like a storage place at first, but...as we got further in, we noticed a smell."

 

"What kind of smell?" Naruto asked, "something bad?"

 

Hinata nodded, "really bad. I didn't think it was a dead body or anything like that, but you never know." She explained, "when we went to check it out, we found a door at the very back that was hidden behind a stake of boxes and crates. It was locked, so we couldn't get it open with any of our tools. However, I was able to see inside of it a little bit, not very far, but I could just barely make out some figures inside. I can't be sure if it's them, though."

 

"Right now, Shino's waiting by the door trying to see if he could open it," Sasuke stated.

 

Naruto nodded with a thoughtful look on his face. Looking back at the front floor of the club, he thought of what he could do. The door that they mentioned could have the people they were looking for behind it. Then again, it couldn't just leave his post in case something happens. "Okay, I'll leave one of my clones here to keep watch with Hinata. Sasuke, lead the way, Kiba, follow me." 

 

Kiba stayed silent, only giving the blond a nod. As far as missions go, this would be the most serious feeling mission that he's ever been on with his team. It was kind of thrilling when he thought about it, yet, at the same time, the way that Naruto was commanding them was...very alpha male. He didn't think the blond had this kind of leadership skills in him because of the scent he got off him sometimes whenever he did come to school. It was an odd miss of bata, uke, and something else, he had asked his mom about it once, she didn't give him a very straight answer. Maybe she's never encountered anyone with that kind of scent before, or maybe she just didn't have an answer, whatever the case was, Kiba found himself being drawn to the blond male over the years. No more so than now. But, it wasn't the time to think about such things now. As the small group of three made their way down to the basement level, a feeling of foreboding came over Naruto, it was a dark feeling that he couldn't shake. He tried to push th feeling out of his mind, yet, it only stayed at the back of it. They made their way past the stairs, the boxes, crates, and other things that could be found in the storage area of a nightclub, they found Shino. He was waiting for them, behind him was a large, metal looking door with a padlock that had a combination of both numbers, letters, and some other symbols. Naruto stepped forward to have a look at the lock, it was quite advanced, more than anything that he's seen. But Kyuubi seemed to be familiar with it, the fox used the other half of itself that was still in Naruto's seal and looked through the blond's eyes. It saw the padlock and hummed thoughtfully.  _"Do you know what type of lock this is, Kyuubi?"_

 

 **"Yes, but, it's been ages since the last I saw of one. It's called a padlock."** The fox explained,  **"to put it simply, it works by turning the right combination of the letters, numbers, and symbols to a specific pattern that could then be used to open the door. Although, without the pattern, you're up shits creek."**

 

_"Is there a way for us to guess the pattern to unlock the door?"_

 

**"No, unless you were willing to cut the lock off completely, then there's nothing you can do. But, I wouldn't do that if I were you since if you do, anyone could come strolling in here and see that there's an intruder. Use extream caution with this one, kit."**

 

"Hmm..." Naruto walked up close to the lock and looked closer. He had once seen in a move somewhere of a way to find out the pattern for some security pad thingy once, but..."Does anyone have powder?" The blond asked as he continued to look at the padlock

 

"Powder?" Kiba asked, "what would you need that for right now?"

 

"Well," Naruto stood up straight and dug in his pack, "if what I'm thinking works, the power should be able to get us through."

 

"How?" Shino asked as he handed Naruto a vial of smoke powder, which is usually used whenever ninjas were stranded and needed help right away. It wasn't very efficient because the smoke could draw the wrong attention. Not to mention that their allies would need to be nearby in order for any help to arrive, and even if they do see it at some point, they could be arriving too late to do anything. Still, Shino liked to keep these things on hand just in case of moments like these.

 

"Thanks," Naruto stated, taking the vial from the bug user and sprinkling it over the padlock. He looked closely, hopefully as the last bit fell onto the lock and fingerprints appeared. "Yes," the blond smiled and started to turn the dial to find the right pattern, now that he knew which letters and such to match with. 

 

* * *

 

**Gato's Island a few hours earlier**

 

Gato was sitting at his desk in his mansion, smirking happily as he had just gotten off the phone with another victim of his business ways. While he was getting more than enough money for himself with his boats taking over the ports of the village while sucking said village dry. It was not enough for him. So, he had multiple small to medium, and still successful, before they met him, business sign one-sided contracts with his company. Even though the businesses that Gato took over were usually doing fine on their own, if given a little more time, they might have been just as big as his company or close to it. Gato saw this and thought that he should get his hands on such potential before it got too far, as he did, he made sure that all contracts that were signed were actually worded in a way that they couldn't back out when the going gets tough. After signing, the owners of the businesses soon saw the errors of their ways and tried to leave the contracts because they were making even less money after than before. But by then, it was much too late and Gato was basically in control of everything they had built.

 

Now, that he had captured another victim in his web, he sat back to relax on his 'accomplishments'. However, he didn't get to relax long when he got another phone call, he chuckled, "business is good," he picked up the phone, expecting to hear someone complaining about their side of the contract. Yet, he soon recognized that it was actually the voice of the nightclub manager in the village he was sucking dry. "Yes, what is it?" 

 

"Boss, sorry to bother you, but someone killed Ganji and Hitori," said the nightclub manager. "What would you like us to do?"

 

"What?!" Gato exclaimed, he wasn't happy about hearing such a thing, not at all. Ganji and Hitori were his best prison guards. Without them, there was no one he could think of that can keep the girls he took in check. They were also excellent at breaking the minds of the girls he took so that they never thought or hoped to escape their fate ever again. He growled, "what happened, how did they die? I want to know who's responsible for this now!"

 

"Oh, well, um, boss, no one actually saw what happened," said the manager.

 

"What the hell do you mean that no one saw what happened?" Gato yelled, not liking the answer.

 

"Well, sir, everyone was inside when they saw this little girl trying to escape from. She had managed to break away from the others in her group that was going to be sold tomorrow morning to one of your clients on the black market. Most of us were fixing to help recapture her, but then we saw Ganji run out after her, we all thought he had it under control, so we didn't bother. Then Hitori came up from the basement to tell me that the girls were ready to be shipped for the morning, they just had to capture that everything would be set. Then he went to go find Ganji and the other girl. When a couple hours passed without anyone seeing either of them or the girl again, I started to get suspicious, so I went and started to look for them when I did find them...well, it was already too late to save either because they were both already dead."

 

Gato thought over this for a second. Who would have the balls to kill off two of his main jailers? He couldn't think of anyone in the village being able to do such a thing, they were all too scared of him and his thugs, which is why they were never able to stand up to him for long. However, if memory served correct, one of his guys did report that that Tanz guy, or whatever his name was, going heading out of the village. He had assumed that he was going for help for the village so that he could finish making that bridge of his. "Wait a minute, how did they die?"

 

"It was gruesome, Boss. Ganji was stabbed through the neck and then in his stomach, I don't know what weapon they used or how strong they were, but it went right through him like butter." The manager stated, "but the worst one was Hitori, it looked like whoever did the dead saw fit to cut him up in to. He was sliced right down the middle and that's all she wrote."

 

"You don't say, huh...hm..." Gato thought for a minute. Seeing as how no villager could have done such a thing without being killed themselves, this could only mean one thing. "Alright, listen up, I want you and some of your best boys to go around the town and round up any and every eligible female you can."

 

"Okay, what would you have us do with them?"

 

"Ass them to the collection, when we ship of the girls we already have, we'll ship them off too. But make sure you leave some off the boat so that we can have some fresh blood in the club." Gato smirked once more, "I'll be coming to the mainland to oversee see that everything goes well in the morning. If any of the villagers try to fight back, kill them, they're no longer needed. Once our client gets the girls and pays us the money, you can expect to get a little bonus when I get back."

 

The manager on the other side of the call couldn't be any more pleased to hear that. "Will do boss, we'll be waiting for you down by the ports," then he hung up the phone.

 

Gato hung up his end as well and sat back, his smirk growing eviler than it already seemed, "I'm not letting some snot-nosed ninja punk get one over me! Even if they can't be defeated, everyone has a price and I'll make sure to find his if we ever met. Nothings going to get in between me and my money."

 

* * *

**Tazuna's house**

 

When Shikamaru and Tsunami made it back inside, they saw that the little girl had finally woken up. She was in a bit of a panic since she didn't know where she was or who they were. She had no memories of what happened to her short of breaking away from the group of kids that were being lined up and taken down to the basement. The reason why she had decided to make an escape then and there was because, as far as she could remember, she had always been a slave in that nightclub. From when she was, maybe four or so, until now, she had always been a slave, but until now, she was always made to dance on those poles. She was never really forced to do what some of the older girls had to do those men, that is, until yesterday night when she was brutally raped by a group of them. After that, she managed to overhear one of them talking about some of the girls in the club being sold or traded to someone that might have been even worse than Gato. It was then that she knew she had to get out of there. She didn't want to face what she faced that night ever again, so when they were lining her up, she tried to get some of the others to help her in her escape so that they could also be free. But it seems that they were already too far gone to think about being free again. She could see it in their eyes, they held next to nothing in their lives and didn't think that there was anything left for them on the outside.

 

So she went on her own.

 

She fought her way out of the line up just before they closed the doors to their cells. She kicked one guy in the balls and used her head to headbutt another hard enough that his nose was surely broken. After that, everything started to move so fast that it became a blur. She got glimpses of what happened; like when she was running up the stairs. Running through the club. Pushing open the door and seeing a bright light. Then she saw the man that raped her first that night standing behind her. She saw a brick wall, and then nothing. Everything became black...She thought she had died, which might have been a welcomed thought until she felt the warmth. As far as she could remember, she had always been cold, hungry, and tired, but this warmth. It surrounded her completely, healing her down to her soul. She didn't know if she was in heaven or if she was dreaming, but she would have accepted either. It wasn't until she heard a voice calling for her to wake up that she decided it was a dream. Good dream. The best dream she's had in forever. When she opened her eyes, she saw a woman and a boyish girl looking over her, she was a little freaked out because she thought that she had been dreaming the whole thing up. Not just the warmth, but the escape as well, and the thought made her want to cry. Yet, the younger girl of the two calmed her down and told her she was safe. Her voice was very angelic, like a song from the heavens, she became calm and tried to speak. Yet her throat was hoarse and dry, so the woman left for a moment and returned with a cup of water for her to dring. Once her throat was well enough to speak, she asked her question.

 

"Who are you?" She looked at the girl with the long black hair that looked like silk. Her skin was pale but pure. Her eyes held a warmth in them that she couldn't remember the last time she saw in someone's eyes. 

 

The girl smiled, "my name is Shikamaru and this is Tsunami, you're safe now so you can relax."

 

"Shi-ka-ma-ru..." she tested the name out and smiled, "sorry, but isn't that a bit of a boy's name?" She asked him curiously.

 

Tsunami looked from the girl to Shikamaru and giggled, "well, you would suppose, right, Shika-chan?" 

 

Shikamaru, for his part, didn't see what Tsunami was talking about, but it clicked all the same. "Troublesome," he sighed, he looked to the girl with a bit of a frown, "it only seemed like a boys name because I am a boy."

 

The girl was confused, a little shocked, but more confused, "what? But you look so much like a gir-"She couldn't finish her sentence, however, because she broke out into a coughing fit. Tsunami gave the girl some more water to drink and helped her into a sitting position. Once it seemed like she had recovered, she asked, "how long have I been asleep?"

 

"Just a few hours," Tsunami answered as she left to refill the cup.

 

"Do you remember anything from before you passed out?" Asked Shikamaru.

 

"Well, I don't know, it's all kind of a big blur..." She said as she looked down into her lap for a long moment. "I do remember one thing." She started, "I was...I was running, I was trying to get away, escape from-from that place. They were going to do something, I heard them after-" she got quite after that, she seemed to be having a hard time with her memories and the emotions that arose with them. "I needed to escape, but they wouldn't come with me." 

 

"Who wouldn't?" Tsunami asked, returning with a newly filled cup, handing it to the girl.

 

She thanked Tsunami as she accepted the cup, but she didn't take a drink from it yet. She stared into its contents as she tried to remember, "the others, the girls. We were...we were going to be sold off somewhere. Gato was coming to take us somewhere in the morning and..." She held the left side of her head that had been most affected by the brick wall from earlier, there was a large bruise on that side of her head that was covered with bandages, thanks to Shikamaru and Tsunami. There was a pain in her head that she was having a hard time coming to terms with. It was sharp and hard, with the pain it brought a deafening screeching sound that made he double over in pain. 

 

Shikamaru and Tsunami were getting worried about the girl, it was clear to both of them that trying to remember was hurting her. They tried to comfort her to the best of their abilities, "hey, hey, it's okay, you don't have to remember everything right now." Shikamaru said soothingly, "you can tell us later, okay..." The girl still held a pained expression on her face, but it didn't seem to be as bad as before. "Alright, just relax...can you tell us your name?"

 

"Uh, yeah, I think so..." She sighed as the pain seemed to get a little lighter, but only slightly. "In the club, thirls would be renamed and most of them would forget their original name, so, we came up with a rule that we would only call each other our names. That way, we wouldn't forget, it sort of worked, I guess, but after so long, those guys caught onto what we were doing...uh, well, anyways, the last time one of the girls had called me by my name, it was...Chichi, I think. I can't really remember since it's been almost five years, but that's the name I remember best." She gave them a small smile, "I kind of like that one, so I kept it."

 

Shikamaru looked at the girl with sympathy, he nodded his head, "alright...Chichi, that's what we'll call you." The trio and one unconscious sensei shared a moment of tender silence until it was broken by the sound of someone screaming outside.

 

"What was that?" Tsunami asked, scared.

 

"I don't know," Shikamaru said as he looked over to the window, outside, it was already very dark out, the stars were out and the moon half full. He stood up and walked over to the window in the living room, looking outside, he didn't really see anything at first, until he looked towards the shadows of the trees. He saw a small group of bandits and thugs gathered there with torches and weapons at the ready. He frowned and quickly drew the blinds over the windows before walking over to the other windows, drawing their blinds as well and then turning off the lights. Tsunami and Chichi watched him move around the house swiftly without hesitation in his steps until he disappeared into the kitchen. When he returned, he had knives in each hand, he walked back over to them and handed Tsunami a large kitchen knife, whole Chichi got the butcher knife, next he made his way over to his bags and started looking through them. 

 

"Shikamaru-chan, what's going?" Chichi asked, absolutely scared, looking around the darkened house, she was becoming more and more aware of the possible dangers. 

 

"It looks like Gato's men have found this place quicker than I expected," Shikamaru stated.

 

"What! Oh, no, I know this would happen, I shouldn't have escaped, I-" Chichi stated to panic, but Shikamaru cut her off.

 

"Don't worry, Naruto left us with some clones that will defend the house against them. But," Shikamaru took out some sometimes and shuriken from his bag, "just in case they get through them, we'll be ready."

 

"What can we do?" Chichi asked nervously.

 

Shikamaru smiled and walked over to sit next to her again, "just watch, you might even surprise yourself."

 

**Meanwhile, outside**

 

Naruto was looking out over the house from a nearby tree. He could sense his other clone counterparts also watching over the house from the shadows, that's why the house looked like it normally did. Even though there were only a small number of shadow clones that was lurking in the shadows of the surrounding forest, these those were special. When the original Naruto had created them, he made sure to mix in some of Kyuubi's chakra into each of them before popping them into existence with the order to protect the house and the people inside, especially his mate and unborn child. Yet, as this clone was sitting in his spot, he had the fleeting thought that his creator might not have been aware of this mixture of his and the Kyuubi's chakra, for a moment, the clone contemplated. _'Why would boss not be aware of something like that?'_   But, his thoughts were interrupted when it felt a presence in the clearing of the house, looking over to the other side of the clearing, he saw a group of thugs trying to look intimidating as they garnered weapons and torches to light their way. The clone frowned, "looks like we're on," he stood up from his hiding place, the shadows of the night doing well to hid him, he looked out towards the other shadows, knowing that the other clones felt the same presnse. With a collective nod, they all disappeared from their hiding spots.

 

The bandits looked at their target, smirks were on their faces as they remembered their earlier order. "Alright men, you remember what the boss said, kill anyone that gets in the way but don't kill the women unless they're able to work in the club. But, that doesn't mean that we can't have a little fun with them before then, either," stated the apparent leader. 

 

"Yeah!" The others agreed, they turned back to the house, seeing that all the lights were now off. 

 

The leader smirk grew, "looks like they might already be expecting us, boy. Let's go get some pussy!!" Shouted the leader as they started to charge towards the house.

 

However, before they could even make it halfway, there was a scream of pain from one of their comrades. A few turned around to see what was happening as the rest went on ahead, to driven by lust to be bothered. The few that did turn, were greeted by the sight of one of their own laying on the ground, in a pool of his own blood resulting from the fatal blow that split them in half through the midsection. Looking at the bleeding body on the ground, they saw that this was real as the blood was still squirting out of the separated midsection while some parts of the guy still twitched a bit before going still. "What the hell," one guy said just seconds before his head slid off his body. The bandits that watched it happen were starting to get freaked out. 

 

"What the fuck, who did that?" One guy said as he looked around, trying to uncover the culprit, but couldn't see a thing other than what the moonlight showed. The light from the torches they brought was already getting closer to the house, so it was useless to use it to see. Then he realized something, looking over to the direction that the others had taken off in, he noticed that the light from the torches was no longer light. Everything was in darkness now with only the moon left to light their way. It looked like this was the only thing that had stopped them as they were also looking around them. Another scream ripped through the air as someone fell at the hand of their mysterious attackers. The others were starting to freak out now, not knowing what was going on. The clearing remained silent for a for minutes as everyone waited for someone to make a sound. It looked like the leader of the group would do the honors.

 

"Show yourself!" The man showed, he was met with more silence, enough to make them think that whatever it was that attacked them before had left them alone. Or it might have only been a fluke, either way, the leader decided to capitalize on this moment of peace to light up his torch once more. Once lit, he aimed it in all directions around them to see if they could see anything, it looked like they were the only ones out there, and he laughed. A loud and boisterous laugh, one he would soon regret, "men! There's nothing here but the fears of our own imaginations! Now, let's move forward, the boss man's going to love the bitch living in that house, he's been eyeing her for months! And the little slut that escaped from us earlier still needs to play, are you with me!" He asked, and one after another, the remaining thugs agreed, "Alright, let's have some fun!" 

 

They charged forth to the house, unknowingly being watched.

 

**Back inside**

 

Shikamaru heard more screaming coming from the bandits. He was a little curious about why they were being so loud, it wasn't tactically to be so loud if you were trying to sneak up on someone to capture them. Then again, who said these guys were smart? Shikamaru was curious, so he got up and took a peek out the window again, what he saw was gruesome. Even in the dark, he could still make out all the shadows of body parts being sent flying all over the place. Blood being spilled left and right. If anything, it almost looked like the clones were toddlers playing with legos and were just tossing them around without a care. Shikamaru moved away from the window, recovering as he did, with a heavy sigh, he turned around to the two worried women. "What's going on out there?" Chichi asked nervously, "are the bandits still coming?"

 

Shikamaru shook his head, "there's nod need to worry about them anymore, dear, they're being taken care of right now." He said as he made his way over to the kitchen, "would either of you like some tea?"

 

"Tea? Oh, well, if you say so, I'll come and help you." Tsunami said as she took the knife from Chichi's shaking hands, she smiled sadly at her, "it's going to be alright. Naruto knows what he's doing."

 Chichi didn't seem to be too convinced at first but nodded her head. "Fine," she watched the two walked into the kitchen for a minute then turned her attention back to the window. She watched it intensely, just waiting for one of Gato's men to burst through it to drag her back to that nightclub. She was almost sure that they would come for her, so when she heard the knock on the front door, she nearly had a heart attack and jump out of her skin at the same time. "W-w-w-wha-what w-w-w-what t-t-tha-that?"

 

Shikamaru cautiously went to the door to see who it was. He took a peek and relaxed again, "don't worry, it's only Naruto," he told her. He turned back to the clone, "so, is everything taken care of?"

 

The clone nodded, "yep. I just came to make sure that everything was alright, I also wanted to check up on the girl to see what she knows." He explained as Shikamaru opened the door wider so the clone could come inside, he also flipped on the lights again. "The boss seems to have found the location of all the girls that are trapped inside The Crescent, he wanted to know if there was anything she could tell him to make them feel more at ease."

 

"Oh, like what?" Tsunami asked after she set a pot of water to boil on the stove, "did he send you to ask?"

 

The clone turned to Tsunami and shook his head. "He doesn't need to, we're his clones, so we're mentally linked." He turned to the girl on the bed, "hello, my name is Naruto Uzumaki, I'm a friend." He said with a small smile as he walked over to Chichi, he sat down in front of her and waited for her to feel comfortable with him being there before speaking. Chichi, for her part, could feel a warm aura coming from the blond, the same warmth that she felt before she woke up. "Now, if you don't mind, may I ask you some questions?" He asked her gently, Chichi slowly nodded her head, not feeling as afraid as she was expecting to be when she saw this blond come through the door, "good. "First..."

 

* * *

  **Gato's shipping boat**

 

It was getting close to sunrise now and Gato was already getting his boat ready for the long trip. He was on one of his bigger boats, it was a cargo ship that could comfortably seat him and half of his men, plus the crew. He made sure that the ship was stocked up properly with enough supplies so that he could continue living his luxurious life on the sea as on land. At the moment, he was blissfully unaware of what was happening on the main island of Wave, as he was too busy thinking about how much money he would be making when he sells some of the girls in his club. There was a knock on his door, "hn, come in," he stated and waited to see the person open the door and come into the room, "yes, what is it?"

 

"Boss, I can't seem to get ahold of anyone in the club, should I try again?" The underlying asked.

 

Gato, for a second, thought that was a bit strange, but then he remembered what he told them earlier. An evil smirk came over his features, "no, no, don't bother." The underlying seemed a bit confused, so he elaborated on what he meant, "what I mean is, they're all probably having way too much fun to come to the phone. We'll give them until we get to the island so that they can have their fun, and then we're taking the girls. They're going to fetch a hefty price when we get over to Kusa, so let them have a little fun now. It's going to be a while before we are able to restock."

 

The man seemed to understand what he meant, he nodded his head, "yes, boss," then left, closing the door behind him as he went.

 

* * *

  **With Naruto and Sasuke**

 

Back with Naruto and Sasuke, Naruto was just able to crack the code for the padlock. While he was doing so, he thought up a message for his clones watching over the house. If there were actual victims of Gato's behind this door, then they probably wouldn't trust them. Especially since they were all boys, maybe he should have asked Hinata to come with them, but, then again, Hinata's eyes were ideal for a lookout because she could see for miles. The Hyuuga bloodline could see through walls too, so that left Naruto to wonder why she couldn't see through this door to see if the girls were here or not, this could have been a waste of time if not. Thankfully, it wasn't, so he would have to think about Hinata's inability to see through the door for a later date. As the door opened up, a smell came with it, it was the scent of urine, waste, and other unpleasant smells. Kiba was the first to smell it with him being an Inuzuka and all, "ugh, what the hell's that smell, did someone die in here?" He asked out loud. Naruto was thinking the same thing when he smelt it and hoped that wasn't the case.

 

"Ssshh, calm down, Kiba, this is a prison for Gato's sex slaves, did you expect it to smell like roses or something?" Sasuke retorted as everyone got ready to enter the space behind the door, the smell wasn't as strong for him and Shino, but it was still present. "Haven't you seen what he's done to the village?"

 

"Well, yeah, but it should have been better than this," Kiba stated.

 

"Either way, my bugs have detected people inside, we should proceed with caution," stated Shino stockily as one of his bug he sent out when the door opened came back to him.

 

Naruto nodded, "alright, let's go. Keep it quite, I don't want any of the girls in here to panic and not trust us when we're trying to save them." The others agreed with him and they opened the door wider to go inside. Upon entry, the place was dark, but as soon as they stepped inside, the lights started to flicker on. When they first walled in, it was just a long row of prison cells, each cell had three or four girls inside, all of them looked pretty young to be in a place like that. Going down the hall, Naruto wanted to see how far in the hall went, thinking that since it was under a nightclub, it would probably only span the length of the club. Naruto had taken the liberty to have one of his clones wall around the outside of the club building to get an idea of how big it was. He had gotten the information when the clone popped earlier before Sasuke and Hinata came to inform him about the door, comparing the information to now, it seems that Gato had been busy during the last few years of having the club built. The underground hallway ended at the very edge of the nightclub's perimeter, yet, there was another door on the left and right side of the end of the prison hall. While Shino, Kiba, and Sasuke were trying to free the girls, who were asleep, knocked out or too tired to do anything about their presence there at the moment, Naruto was curious about the doors. "This should just be a closet, right?" He whispered to himself as he looked over the left door, reaching his hand out, he turned the knob slowly, something in his gut told him that there might be something there. Pulling on the door slowly, it made an eerie creaking sound that was more deserving of horror movies, looking inside, he found...

 

A closet. A regular cleaning closet.

 

He couldn't explain why he felt disappointed at the moment, so he moved onto the right door. He turned the knob and opened the door, half expecting to see another closet as well. But then there were stairs. They were going down before, far enough that the light from the hall wasn't enough to show the whole way. His curiosity was overwhelming now, he looked back over to where Shino and the others were still picking the locks of each of the cells. They were all busy, so who was he to interrupt their work? Turning back down to the stairs, he took the first steps, feeling in his pockets for something that could light the rest of the way. He came up with a mini emergency flashlight and continued his journey downwards. As he walked down the darkened staircase, he got the odd feeling of being watched, there were solid walls on either side and a ceiling up above. He paused when he got down to the last step and looked around, he couldn't make out anything with the little light coming from his mini flashlight. Instead, he decided to look on the walls light switch, however, as he turned to look, he felt a hand on his shoulder. Swiftly turning around without looking, he took the land and made the person fly over his shoulder, not caring where they landed. When he did, his flashlight glimpsed the light switch he was looking for, he flipped it on and waited for the lights to illuminate the person he had just flipped. To his surprise...

 

"Oooww! Whatcha have to go and do that for, Naruto?! Man, that hurt!" 

 

It was Kiba.

 

"Kiba? What are you doing here? I thought you were with the others upstairs," Naruto stated as he put away his flashlight to help Kiba to his feet.

 

"Yeah, I was, but then I saw you coming down here, so I thought I would fallow you." Kiba said as he got back on his feet and rolled his left shoulder, "you sure do know how to throw a person, thank kami I wasn't the enemy or else," he chuckled. 

 

"Yeah, thank kami..." Naruto said absentmindedly as his eyes looked around the room. He had a bad feeling come over him just then. The stairs led to a large room with windows on either side and a door on the back wall, he walked over to one of the windows to see the lights just come on as he approached. behind the glass was a little girl, she looked to be about four or five years old. Her skin was very pale, she looked to be too skinny for her own good, but her hair, her hair was the thing that caught the blond's attention the most. The most brilliant red that you've ever seen, it was crimson, it was bright, like a sea of red. It was short, looking as if it had just recently been cut, and by a very bad barber at that. The girl was laying down on a raised part of the floor in the center of the room with chains around her ankles. Naruto looked on either side of the window but couldn't see a door, he looked back in the little girl's room, he couldn't really see a way to get in right away. That is, until he looked up, the ceiling right above where the girl was laying, there was what looked to be a hatch of some kind. 

 

"Huh, what's that girl doing in there?" Naruto heard Kiba's voice from across the room, he turned around to see him standing in front of the other window in the room. Walking over to that window, Naruto saw the same girl from before, only this girl looked to be younger than the first. "Does this Gato guy have some sick fetish or something," Kiba asked as he looked at the chains on her ankles.

 

"I don't know and I don't care, we're getting them out of there like the others upstairs." Naruto walked over to the only door in the room, it didn't have a lock on it, there was only a basic handle to pull the door open. When he went to open the door, he found that it was locked, "wha-"

 

"Looks like you've found the boss's little secret pets," came a voice from the other side of the room. Naruto and Kiba turned towards the stairs where a stranger was standing when he wasn't there before, neither of them of them had sensed him appear before.

 

"Who are you?" Kiba asked as h got ready for a fight, "and where did you come from?" 

 

The man held up his hand to the two boys. This man smiled at them from behind rounded orange shades, "relax, I'm not here to fight you. You see, I was put in charge of guarding these two children."

 

"Guard them, so you know how to get into the rooms?" Naruto stated as he let go of the door.

 

"Perhaps," said the man.

 

Naruto turned fully to the man and prepared himself, "so, do we have to fight you to get through or something?"

 

"Fight me? You two, I don't think so, after all, how can you fight someone that's not even here?" The man chuckled, leaving the two genins confused.

 

"If you're not here, there how are you talking to here right now?" Asked Kiba, still preparing to fight, he opened his senses to see if there was anyone other than him and Naruto in the room. So far, he only sensed himself and Naruto, he couldn't pick up on the strangely dressed man at all, "what are you? Why can't I sense?"

 

"Like I said before, I am not here," said the man with a smirk. "Honestly now, if I am to release these children to you, I would expect that both or one of you have the ability to listen."

 

"Release them? Does that mean that you're going against Gato?" Naruto asked curiously.

 

The man tilted his head to the side a little, "Gato, that's an odd name, who might that be I wonder..." He said before chuckling, "well, never mind, that's not important. No, I don't work for this 'Gato' person you speak of, I work for someone else."

 

"Who?" Naruto asked.

 

"Does it matter?" The man asked, "who I work for is of no concern of either of yours at the moment, so let us leave it at that. The only reason why you are seeing me at the moment is that I don't see it fit for these two to stay here any longer. I would have taken them out of their prisons long ago if I was able, but since you are here," he nodded his head in Naruto's direction, "I don't see any reason why you shouldn't take them."

 

Naruto raised a brow at this, "do you know me?"

 

"No, not personally, but a friend of mines have worked with your family for a long time. He had asked me to keep an eye out for someone like you for a while now and now that I've found you, I would say my work here is done." The man asked.

 

"What are you talking about?" Kiba asked, "family?" He looked to Naruto curiously, a questioning look in his eyes.

 

Naruto glanced at Kiba, already knowing the question he wanted to ask, he looked back at the strange man that, apparently, wasn't actually there. "I have no idea of what family you are talking about, I'm an orphan, have been for all my life."

 

This news seemed to surprise the man greatly, "an orphan. Oh my, it seems like my friend's information was a little out of date then." He sighed, "ah, but I was so looking forward to meeting the great Uzumaki clan after so many years. Hm," looked at Naruto intently for a second, "you boy, what is your last name?"

 

"Uzumaki," Naruto stated, then he asked, "what do you mean by clan? I've never heard of the Uzumaki clan before."

 

"Me neither," stated Kiba as he folded his arms. 

 

The man nodded, "judging from your headbands, that is no wonder why." The man stated solemnly, he let out another sigh and snapped his fingers, the door behind Naruto gave a loud click as it slowly opened. The two boys looked back at it for a second before turning to the man again, "now, listen carefully, I've heard many things from those men upstairs. They are planning to sell these two children for an untolled amount of money because of their Uzumaki blood, so it was very fortunate for them that you came today of all days. I have no idea where they would have ended up if you didn't show. It is now up to you to take care of them, they are family after all."

 

"Family? What are you talking about? I told you that I don't have any," Naruto stated confused. Until he remembered what Hiruzen told his clone when he sent for backup.

 

The man shook his head, "you may find that to be untrue." He took something out of his pocket and tossed to Naruto, the blond caught it flawlessly, looking at it, it looked like a regular pocket watch. Naruto looked up to the man questioningly, "that there is something you can use to get in contact with me anytime you need. I will have to let my friend know about what happened here today and what I've learned." He said as he started to turn away from them, "oh, and I've already taken the liberty to unlock all the cells upstairs to make things easier for your friends. From the looks of it, you might want to call in those villagers for help getting them out or else you might meet up with that Gato person her were talking about earlier." He nodded his head to the boys, "good day," then he faded away from view completely.

 

"Hey, wait, how are we supposed to use this thing?" Kiba tried to ask, but it was too late, he heaved a sigh and turned back to Naruto, great, now what?"

 

"Simple," Naruto said after looking at the watch for a few seconds, he put it in the inner pocket of his jacket and turned to the door. "We save these girls and continue on with our mission." He pulled the handle of the door so it was now wide open and walked in, Kiba followed him, "you take the right, I'll take the left." Kiba nodded and they parted ways from there. Naruto was able to find the location of the girl's cell quite easily, the hallway was short on either side, at the end of each was an opening to a small room that was void of any furniture. It was just big enough for two, maybe three, people stand up in, at the center of the room was a manhole cover of sorts. It had a handle on it that looked like a wheel that was meant to lock large vault doors in banks. Turning the wheel in the indicated direction as instructed on the door, Naruto was able to open the round door and look down, he saw the girl sleeping and sighed. "What a long night this has been," he mutters to himself, he created a clone that took care of the chains on the girl's ankles and lifts her up enough so that he could take her. Once the younger girl was in his arms, he noted that she was much to light for a, now that he got a closer look at her, three-year-old to be. The clone dispelled as Naruto left the room with the unconscious girl, he met back up with Kiba who had the other girl on his back, "let's go."

 

Naruto and Kiba made their way back up to the rest of their room to see that Shino and Sasuke were helping some of the girls. The ones that could walk were hesitant around the two, but once they saw that they were opening the cells, decided to trust them for the time being. By the time Naruto and Kiba got there, all the cells were open, but there were still some girls in the cells that had yet to wake up. "I don't get it, why aren't they waking up?" Sasuke asked as he tried to wake one girl so they could leave, he looked over to the girl's cell mates for answers.

 

"The men came and gave some of us something after they brought us down here. After that, they didn't wake up," said the girl that shared the cell with the girl that Sasuke was trying to wake.

 

Naruto came over, looking at the still sleeping girls, "did you see what they gave them?"

 

The girl shook her head, "no, it was in a needle, I thought it was just the dizzy juice they always give us," she said with tears in her eyes.

 

"Dizzy juice?" Kiba asked.

 

Another girl nodded, "yeah, it makes us dizzy whenever it's time for us to go upstares for a show."

 

Naruto frowned, "we're going to have to get some help to bring them upstairs with us."

 

"Naruto, if you make some shadow clones, the task will be no problem, right?" Sasuke asked as he looked up at Naruto.

 

"I could do that, but actually, I'm starting to get a little tired from using it so much tonight," Naruto stated. Looking at his face, he was starting to look a little worn out. After staying up most of the night working on the seal matrix, then all day on the bridge, making all the clones to help direct the villagers in how to do this and then while fighting bandits. Not to mention sneaking into the nightclub, and now trying to free all these prisoners, it was enough to say that Naruto had reached his limit on how long he could stay up. It has been way over forty-eight hours since he last slept. 

 

"Do you can't do it?" Sasuke asked.

 

"You're exhausted, aren't you?" Shino asked.

 

Naruto looked at Shino, he could tell that the bug user was seeing right through him. He smirked, "I'm not going to let this stop me though."

 

"Boss," everyone turned around to see Naruto's clones coming through the door, they looked at Naruto, confused.

 

Naruto gave a slightly tired smile, "did you finish the work upstairs?" He asked.

 

"Yes, we'll take over from here," said the first clone that spoke as he walked over to Naruto and took the girl from his arms. 

 

Naruto nodded, "good, I think it's about time for me to take a break," he said as he shoulders slumped.

 

"A break! This isn't the time or the place to take a break!" Kiba shouted, but Naruto had already fallen, passing out before he even hit the ground.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**To be continued...**

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this took a while, but let me know you're thoughts.


	19. Wake up anew

**Two hours later**

It was now daylight and the seal was nearly done. Kyuubi looked around at there work that took all night to complete, all the seals were placed and the two was already giving off an eerie blue glow. The buildings were already starting to repair themselves good as new, people were coming out of their houses to see the process happen. The villagers were in awe at how the houses were rebuilding themselves without human intervention. Wood grew back as if it was still part of a living tree. Windows melded together as if they were magic. The streets started to look as if they were just formed. All around them, plants grew, trees sprouted, and flowers were blooming. Soon the village of Wave no longer looked like a rundown town of lost hope, instead, it seemed like a newly built town. 

 

"Wow, this is amazing," said one man.

 

"Is this a dream? It has to be some kind of magic or something," said one woman.

 

"No, no, there's no magic involved," said Kyuubi as he jumped down from the nearby rooftop. He looked around at the gathered villagers, "Attention everyone, attention," he called to everyone in the area. They all turned to him, wanting to know what he would say then, "everyone, the work we did here tonight was work well done, but we are far from done. The seals we put down have already started to do what they were made for, they are turning back time in your village, making it as if Gato and the band of thugs never came here in the first place. However, since this is only the first step, the second step comes later, so tonight, come meet me back here in the village square for the next step. Rest well, save your strength, because what comes next will require your strength."

 

"Um, young man...uh, what is it that we will be doing tonight?" Asked an old lady.

 

"I'm glad you asked. Since we only kick-started the seals, we are going to need to activate it, but in order to do that, we're going to need some irradiance to be gathered. " Kyuubi explained as he listed off things that they would need, "the main ingredient that will be used is an herb from the surrounding area, mainly one that is used for healing will be greatly appreciated. Does anyone know where we can find such an herb?"

 

A little girl stepped out of the crowd holding a book of herbs in her arms. "I know of one, there's a patch growing in the forest."

 

"Okay, good, gather as much as you can before we meet later this evening. We will need to activate the seal before the sun goes down tonight." Kyuubi explained, "for now, the seals are in a dormant state, it needs to gather energy from the sun and the surrounding energy in order for its defenses to work properly when activated. Until then, rest well, so we can celebrate."

 

"What are we celebrating?" Asked a little orphan boy.

 

"Freedom."

 

* * *

 

**Tazuna's house**

 

Naruto slowly opened his eyes to see a familiar ceiling. He looked to the side to see Kakashi, still unconscious, in his bed. Turning his eyes to the other side, he met dark, blood red eyes looking at him angrily. "So, you're away, demon..." said the owner of the eyes.

 

Naruto rolled his eyes with a sigh as he got up from his bed, "what do you what, Kurani? I'm not in the mood for your rude attitude," he stated as he stretched his arms out. 

 

"Watch your mouth, brat, I should send a report to the Hokage about how you tried to take over the mission by putting all of your superior officers under genjutsus." Kurani stated heatedly, "if I had it my way, you would be buried ten feet under already."

 

Naruto scuffed, deciding to play along, "you can shut the fuck up right now, Genjutsu Mistress of the Leaf. Or did you forget who's body is holding back the so-called demon that almost destroyed half the village? Oh, yeah, that was me," he said, smirking at the woman.

 

Kurani sneered at the blond, "you don't contain the demon, you are the demon." She stated as she tightened her grip on her Kuni, "I could end you right here, right now, you abomination."

 

"You do that and see how quickly the demon fox Kyuubi come for your throat." Naruto chuckled, "it may not be right away, but he will come back. He's a mass of chakra, sentient chakra at that, did your Yondime really think he could have been 'killed' so easily."

 

"I knew it, so you are the demon after all," Kurani hissed as she got up and prepared her attack, but Naruto was quicker. He caught her wrist so quick that his movements were like a blur. They were alone in the house, other than the sleeping Kakashi laying next to them, blissfully unaware of what was happening. Kurani glared at the young ninja with all the hate in her body, "you're a monster-"

 

"And you're a disease." Naruto shot back, "your attitude, your outlook, your way of thinking, it's cancer upon everyone in that village. But don't worry, I have the cure, it's called reality. I will shove it down each and every last one of your throats until you have no choice but to accept it."

 

"You version of reality is a lie! You are a monster, a demon..." She shouted at the whiskered boy as tears started to fill her eyes, "you're the murder that killed my FATHER!" She tried to put more pressure into her attack so that she could stab Naruto, but Naruto wasn't letting her break his defense.

 

"No, you're wrong, I was just a baby at the time. A newborn that's barely drawn breath in the world, how could I, an infant, kill a grown an I've never even met!" Naruto said, getting angry at Kurani's attitude. "Why don't you use that marshmallow sized brain of yours and think, think long and hard about it. If I were a baby, and your father was a fully grown man, well trained and so on, how could I even begin to defend myself against him? The fox and I are two different beings, he did what he did before I even knew what colors were! But yet I was beaten, burned, raped, and blamed for everything he did when I was a baby!"

 

"No! no, no, no, you are the fox, you have its marks!"

 

"Birthmarks!"

 

"You have its chakra!"

 

"He was sealed in me!"

 

"...." Kurani continued to glare at the blond with all the hate that she could muster. "You...a monster..." she whispered, staring into deep blue eyes that raged like the ocean.

 

Naruto stared back into her red eyes. He could see that she wasn't listening to him, no one in the village would ever dare to listen to anything he had to say. he sighed, "believe what you want...But if you don't see reason, then you to see light." He dropped Kurani's wrist and turned away, then walked away. "Shikamaru, I'm going outside, you can have the tea ready when I come back? Need to blow off some steam." He stated as he pulled on his shoes and left the house.

 

Kurani wiped her eyes as she glared at the blond's back until he left. She sighed when she was finally alone, or so she thought, "you're wrong, you know..." She looked up to find the owner of the voice. Her eyes landed on Shikamaru, he was standing in front of the stairs with the girl, Chichi, on his left side looking at the door that Naruto left through curiously. Tsunami was standing behind Shikamaru, looking at Kurani with a disapproving look. She saw Asuma coming through the front door with Ino, Chouji, and Hinata, the last two were looking out in the direction that Naruto left in. As for her students, Kiba, Shino, and Sakura, they were right behind Asuma's team, wondering what just happened. Sasuke was just coming down the stairs with Tazuna and Inari, the later who happened to be taking a ride on the Uchiha's back. Kurani had to rub her eyes again to make sure that she wasn't seeing things, as bizarre as the sight had been. It was real. Lastly, the red-haired boy that looked so much like Naruto who she had met in the genjutsu yesterday was sitting promptly on a chair by the dining table, looking like he had just watched a good show.

 

The redhead stood up and clapped his hands, getting everyone's attention. "Now, now, Shikamaru, I believe your husband had asked you for some tea while he blew off some steam. I think it would be a good choice to get on that, we both know that Naruto is not that easy to anger." He said calmly as he kept eye contact with Kurani the whole while.

 

"Tch," Shikamaru grunted took hold of Chichi's hand as he continued on his way to the kitchen.

 

Tsunami followed behind the two to make sure that Chichi's injuries didn't make her faint too suddenly. Yet, she didn't want to leave her spot until she gave Kurani a piece of her mind. "Nina-san, I don't know who you are or who you think you are, but you're in my house now." She said with her arms folded, glaring at the genjutsu mistress, "while you all are here, I don't want any more arguments like this one. There are far more important things to do than to argue and fight amongst yourselves." She huffed as she marched after her two charges.

 

"Uh, um, right..." Kurani said softly.

 

Sasuke continued his way down the stairs with Inari on his back, he gave Kurani a side-eye as he made his way to the table. Tazunai shook his head at the woman as he passed. Asuma walked over to Kurani, "did I miss something just now?" He asked as the other kids went to ask Sasuke and Shikamaru the same thing, well, Sakura and Ino were just going to basically flirt with Sasuke first, but they don't matter.

 

Kurani frowned, she shook her head with a sigh, "I'll tell you later."

 

* * *

 

**With the Namikaze's**

_(I bet you almost forgot about them, didn't you)_

 

Minato put down his bags and stretched his arms. "Aah, finally, we're free of that damn cab, I thought my back was going permanently stick in the sitting position! And my legs! They're asleep!" He whined casually as he stomped his foot on the ground.

 

"Oh, come now Mina honey, at least you didn't have a three-month-old sitting on you for the majority of the trip." Kushina laughed as she put her daughter in her stroller.

 

Minato chuckled as he turned to his wife, "yeah, sorry about that. Well, anyway, let's get a move on, I want to make sure we get to the village before sunset!" He said cheerfully until both parents remembered the annoying sound of their youngest son.

 

"Village! Village! Village! Vill-"

 

"OKAY SHOJI!" Menma yelled at his little brother tiredly, both his parents cringed at how loud he was but were still thankful that their younger son actually listens to his big brother.

 

"Oh, sorry, big brother, I'm just super excited to meet other big brother so much!" Shoji exclaimed happily as he bounced on the balls of his feet.

 

Menma nodded, "yeah, me too, but from now on, you have to be really, really quite okay." He said with a finger to his mouth, "Naruto-nii-chan doesn't know that we're coming so we have to be really quiet, sshh."

 

Shoji nodded his head excitedly, "okay, okay!" Then he stopped bouncing as a question popped into his mind, "why?"

 

"Why what, Shoji?" Asked Kushina as they started walking in the direction of the village after Minato finished storing all of their belongings in a medium-sized storage seal.

 

"Why do we need to be quite if Naruto-nii doesn't know that we're even coming?" Shoji asked curiously, "does he know what we look like?"

 

Both parents paused, more like froze, "uh..." they looked at each other, not sure what to say to that. The child made a good point, he was only six though, but it was still a massively good point. "Uhm, no..."

 

"So why do we need to be quiet if he doesn't know what we look like?" Shoji asked, still confused.

 

"Because, uhh..." Minato looked at Kushina for answers.

 

Kushina shrugged her shoulders, "uh, because uh..."

 

Menma decided to help his parents out, "because it's a surprise!" He stated simply as if he had all the answers. The parents looked at him, curious about what he was going to say, "Naruto-onii-chan is a ninja, just like mom and dad used to be before they had us, so if he's a ninja, he's got to be really smart. Ninjas blend in with their surroundings and can do lots of cool stuff with chakra. Even though he doesn't know who we are or what we look like, he can still find out about us, especially if we're making noise, so we have to be really, really quiet, okay Shoji?"

 

"Oooh, okay," Shoji nodded his head, believing every word his big brother said.

 

Kushina looked at Minato, they shrugged their shoulders, sharing one thought,  _"seems legit,"_ and kept it moving.

 

* * *

**  
A few hours later**

**Unknown island**

 

A figure with long jet black hair stood in front of a mirror, it was tall enough that it showed the figures entire reflection. The person in front of the mirror wore formal black pants with a white shirt tucked in and buttoned up halfway to the top, revealing an old scare on his chest. His feet were covered in black western styled shoes that were the same color as his pants, his shoulders were covered by a jacket so long that it almost swept the floor. The jacket was all black with gold outlines around the buttons, but he wore it over his shoulders like a cape. On his face were a pair of orange tinted shades, a gift from an old friend way back when he was much younger. His skin was fair, his hair was almost like spun gold, and his eyes were as cold and lost as the Arctic. He looked at his reflection in the mirror for a long time, his usual look of depression present as he lifted his hand to the ancient mirror before him. He closed his eyes for a moment in focus until he heard it. The soft but deep sound of the person he was searching for.

 

"Alucard...long time no see, what do I owe you this time?" Asked the voice softly.

 

The blond man, Alucard, looked into the mirror. "The other side is quite dark, is it not? Is this what you wanted?" He asked.

 

"Perhaps, but this is what my master had decided, who am I to go against him?" Said the voice, indeed, the reflection in the mirror was completely black, no light to be seen anywhere.

 

"Doe this mean that you are still under contract for the boy?"

 

"Very much so," the voice said with a bit of darkness, "if it wasn't for..." the voice sighed. "Nevertheless, why have you called me? You are the only one who could ever call me through this connection. Are you in need?"

 

Alucard shook his head slowly with a sigh, "no, it is not me that needs the help. However...do you remember your prior contract? The one in the Nation of Elements?"

 

"The Nations of Elements," the voice repeated slowly, a sound of nostalgia. "Ah yes, the land where the humans could use such magic as 'chakra' to bend nature to their will. Yes, I remember it well, has something happened there?"

 

"...So you don't know?"

 

"No, ever since their third war, I was unable to get rid of their particular seal and it bothered me so." The voice sighed once more, "by the time I reached them again...I looked all over, you know, but the holder was nowhere to be found..." even though Alucard couldn't see the person's face, he could tell that they were sad.

 

"Then I suppose I have good news, my friend...I found the holder not too long ago," Alucard said. They shared a silence for a long while before he spoke again, "he's young, looks to be about eleven or twelve, I didn't realize it was him until I looked into his eyes. He's young but very intelligent. He's going to need some help rebuilding his empire don't you think?" 

 

In the darkness of the mirror, a toothy smile was seen that showcased a fair set of fangs. "Yes, he will...Tell him to wait for me."

 

"What about your current contract?" 

 

"As far as contracts go, this one is more important, seeing as how it can overrule my current one...." The voice chuckled softly, yet it sounded so evil, "it may still be a contract, but it's as close to freedom that I'm going to get from this dark place."

 

Their connection was lost soon after. 

 

Alucard took in a deep breath as he looked at his reflection once again, he turned away from the mirror and started to leave the room. "I look forward to seeing you again soon...my friend."

 

* * *

  **Back in Wave**

 

It has been a couple hours since Naruto had left the house that morning. He had wandered deep into the woods to start practicing his taijutsu. He didn't summon any clones as he practiced, not seeing the point in trying to learn the katas too quickly since there wasn't any immediate danger present in Wave as of yet. He moved slowly to make sure he had every move under control when he started, the sun was still shining brightly through the trees, now the sun was overhead illuminating everything. He had yet to take a break, which was typical for him whenever he was rilled up about anything. He had on his gravity seals and resistant seals on the second level because that was about as high as he could go without damaging himself while using them. Seeing as how both seals connected to his chakra and muscles, he could have easily torn something if he went to the third level, thankfully he listened to the little bunny that was now napping on the ground while he practiced. When Naruto stormed out of the house, he wondered so deep in the forest that it would have been impossible for the others to find him right away, and that's how he wanted it. He put on both seals and was going to set both to max levels when the bunny, Yuki, literally dropped down on his head and told him no. 

 

**Flashback**

 

_"Damn that bitch, that woman thinks she knows everything about me! She's just like the villagers!"  Naruto ranted to himself as he made his way into the forest. When he found a spot he liked, he took out both seals he got from Kyuubi and put them both on, "alright, let's get a good work out while I still have the energy. Let's see how high this goes...level number five, that's it?" He raised a brow at the Kyuubi's seal, "I thought he would have gone higher, but whatever, number five it is then._ _Just as he was about to apply the needed chakra to activate the fifth level, something fell on his head. "What the-"_

 

_"NOOOO!" Came the shrill scream from the thing that fell on his head, "No! You mustn't go so high, you'll hurt yourself and then nee-chan will be sad!!" Yuki cried._

 

_Naruto lifted Yuki the rabbit/bunny off of his head and looked at it in the face. "So, you can talk after all," he stated, "who's nee-chan?"_

 

_"Shika-nee-chan!"  Yuki cheered happily, then hit Naruto on the head with her paw as hard as she could, which didn't hurt at all. Her paws are very soft, "don't make nee-chan sad or else the baby will be sad too!"_

 

_Naruto frowned at the cute creature, "fine..."_

 

_"Yay!' Yuki cheered._

_Naruto sweatdropped, "how can you talk anyways?" He asked as he put the rabbit on the ground and ground down so they were still at eye level-ish._

 

_Yuki smiled a bright smile, "because, I'm a summons! Hey, do you want to be my summoner?" She asked hopefully._

 

_"Um...I don't see how a rabbit can fight in a battle..." He stated, but then Yuki did the irresistible Puppy-Dog Eyes Jutsu: Bunny Version and he had to change his mind. "Buuut, you are pretty cute, so I guess I'll say yes."_

 

_"YAAAYY~" Yuki shouted and hopped around the clearing happily until she stopped in front of Naruto again. "Just for that, I'll introduce you to my best friend Shukaku, the Ichibi! He's got a summoning contract too and he's been looking for another summoner to help him out."_

 

_Naruto's eyebrows went up, "you know the Ichibi? How? Since when?"_

 

_"Oh, what? You don't think I was born this cute, do you? It takes years of hard work! And during those years, I made friends with a whole bunch of people, including the Bijuu!" Yuki said ecstatically before getting serious, "but, if you ever want to even think about being Shukaku's new summoner, you've got to be strong. Shukaku only respects those who are very, very strong, got it." _

 

_"Okay, this sounds promising," Naruto said as he rubbed his chin, "okay, I'll do it."_

 

_"But..." Yuki said expectantly._

 

_Naruto frowned at the bunny summons again, "but I won't rush, is that it?"_

 

_Yuki smiled happily as she nodded her head once. Then she yawned, "you get started, I'll be over there taking a nape," she hopped over to a nearby tree and laid down. "Remember, no rushing or else!" Then she fell asleep._

 

_Naruto sweatdropped again, "that was fast."_

 

**Flashback end**

Since then, Naruto had followed the advice of his new summons. Although, he was still going to use his shadow clones in the future whenever he was too busy to practice.

 

* * *

**Somewhere else**

**Random location**

 

It has been a long time since he has seen the world.

 

The bright blue sky, the fresh air.

 

Yes, a long time indeed. 

 

Standing up in the dark void in the deeper part of hell, a man looked towards the direction that was supposed to be upward. A smirk present on his features as he prepared to exit. In the blink of an eye, the man was standing on solid ground. He looked around at the greenery around him, tall trees and the smell of the ocean nearby told him that he was on an island of some sort. Looking around more as he walked in a seemingly random direction, he paused, he closed his chocolate brown, almost deep red eyes. He listened. Off in the distance, he could feel it. The soft, gentle song of someone calling out to him. His smirk grew as he licked his lips. "It's been a long time indeed. But first, it's been too long since my last meal," he turned a different direction than the direction of the calling, "I wonder what flavor this soul will bring?" He licked his lips again before taking off in that direction.

 

 

**To be continued...**


	20. Temp

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Or Happy Holidays to all! 
> 
> By the way, I am still taking votes for the pairings for Naruto and also side parings, yay! Because no one should be alone on Christmas...well, even if I am, there's always food, right? Anyways, before I get into the story, I have two announcements so stick around until the end.

**This is a temporary chapter until after the updates. Enjoy**

 

Kakashi opened up his eye and looked around, "ha, it looks like I overdid with the Sharingan, huh," he said weakly.

 

"Yeah, you sure did, old man." The weak jonin looked in the direction of the voice to see Naruto leaning on the wall not too far from the stairs. Naruto had his arms crossed in front of him, his eyes closed and his head down. It looked like he never said a word, but Kakashi was sure that it was his voice. "Hey, Kakashi, how long are you going to lay there?"

 

"Huh? Wha-well, I was injured recently, Naruto, can't you give me a break this once?" Kakashi sighed, "how long was I out?"

 

"About three days," came a new voice. Kakashi turned to see Sasuke, Shikamaru, Sakura, and the rest of the rookie nine make their way over to him.

 

"So, backup arrived just in time, I suppose," Kakashi led his head lay back down on the pillow. His lone eye staring up to the ceiling as he thought of what he should do now, more importantly, what happened. He looked over to Sasuke, "what happened while I was out?"

 

"For just three days?" Sasuke started, "kind of a lot..." And he begins telling the tail of recent events that happened in Wave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Announcements!!
> 
> First, I will be starting to rewrite some of the chapters that feel too rushed. I might change up some details so they can match up with the other chapters. I will try to keep the storyline the same, it just that some of the details will be changed up a bit, like all the information that was given out to the civilian by the ninjas and stuff like that. I will also try to make it so that the number of characters that were introduced will be cut back a little bit so that the story can focus more on the main characters and their goals. Second, after this chapter, I am going to be updating my other stories that I haven't updated in a while, so it's going to take some time before I can get back to this one. There are more than one that I've really been meaning to get back to. However, due to the holidays, those updates will take some time, as well as the updates for this story as well, but I will do my best to make everything interesting.

**Author's Note:**

> If you have any suggestions on events to happen or pairings for Naruto that are NOT SasuNaru, you may let me know.


End file.
